


Return of the Living Dead: A New Fight

by The_Unlimited



Series: Return of the Living Dead: Continued [1]
Category: Return of the Living Dead (Movies)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-01-25 23:18:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 72,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21364306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Unlimited/pseuds/The_Unlimited
Summary: There were survivors at the end of every Return of the Living Dead movie. What I want to know is, what happened to them? Moreover, why did the Trioxin and the zombies change with Necropolis? And why the hell did the characters in Rave to the Grave remember nothing from Necropolis? This studies into the possible what and why, while also resolving around elements for other stuff I do.
Relationships: Curt Reynolds/Julie Walker (Return of the Living Dead), Julian Garrison/Jenny (Return of the Living Dead)
Series: Return of the Living Dead: Continued [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714351
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	1. Collecting

**Author's Note:**

> Just something I felt like doing. I do change things up a bit, though. While at the end of the first Return of the Living Dead (spoilers), the government nukes the town and kills everyone, they actually released a comic that shows that they all somehow survived and try to make their way through the mess of the town with the zombies still at large. I plan on having only the characters that were locked in the basement survive. As for part 3, well, that'll be explained. And like I said, I also explain why the characters in Rave to the Grave that survived Necropolis remember nothing. And I change up Becky. I don't care if things are somehow now different, it doesn't make sense for her to go from the smart, geeky girl of the group to a stereotypical college airhead. Personally, I haven't decided yet whether this will be a single story or part of another series, but I'll probably figure it out by the end of this. Well, when I figure out how the hell I'm gonna end this

**Louisville, Kentucky, 1984**

It had been a hell of a night for Spider, Casey, and Chuck.

They just wanted to party, so their group went to pick up their friend, Freddy, from his job at a medical supply warehouse, because he always knew where to party. They had gotten there hours before Freddy was supposed to get off, so they decided to improvise a party in a nearby cemetery. With their other friends, Tina, Trash, Suicide, and Scuz, they managed to have a good time drinking beer, listening to music, and smoking some cigarettes. The highlight of the evening was when Trash did a strip tease on a gravestone.

Things started going south after Tina left to pick up Freddy after it was close to time for him to get off. After she left, it rained in the cemetery. This wasn't normal rail, though. It burned at the skin, which was especially bad for Trash since she wasn't wearing any clothes. After a few minutes of trying to unsuccessfully starting their car, they resigned to bailing out to the factory where Tina had gone.

Unfortunately, they found her in the basement, having locked herself behind a gate as a decomposed zombie barely held together tried to get her. The undead man killed Suicide, but the others managed to escape and bar the door with wooden boards. After trying to figure out what to do, they decided to go to the funeral home that Chuck and Casey admitted to seeing Freddy enter earlier.

That's when things went from bad to worse. They tried shortcutting through the cemetery to reach the funeral home, and that's when the zombies started rising from their graves. They split up from there, Scuz, Spider, and Tina running towards the funeral home, and Chuck and Casey running back towards the warehouse. Unfortunately, Trash got left behind and was killed by the zombies.

Once Spider, Scuz, and Tina got to the funeral home, they found Freddy, his boss, Burt, and Burt's friends, Frank and Ernie. Frank and Freddy were sick, and Tina wouldn't leave his side, so that left it to the others to board up all the doors and windows to stop the zombies from getting in. Once they were done, they then deduced that ingesting the gas chemical from the Trioxin barrel that they accidentally broke infected Frank and Freddy. Their sickness was them slowly dying before becoming zombies.

Afterwards, they had to reboard one of the windows, during which Scuz got killed. Ernie then took the remains of the zombie woman who did it, and inquired to her why she did it. She told them that it hurt to be dead, and the only thing that could make it go away was eating brains.

During all of this, the zombies managed to manipulate paramedics and police officers to come to the funeral home so that they could get more brains. After the cops had gotten eaten, Burt and Spider charged out and got into the car just as Freddy and Frank reached full circle of their transformations. Frank cremated himself because he didn't want to eat anyone, but Freddy didn't have that kind of willpower. He was after Tina.

After they got to the car, Burt drove it up to the door to try to get Tina and an injured Ernie, but the zombies had quickly surrounded it. Spider insisted that they try to get closer, but Burt left, swearing that they would send help, despite Spider's insistent yelling at him. They drove out the graveyard, but crashed into the supply warehouse when they found swarms of zombies waiting for them on the road.

They entered the warehouse to find Chuck and Casey. After a round of hugs between the friends, the group witnessed that police helicopters were announcing a barricade was being put up to try to contain the zombies. They managed to knock out the Tarman zombie and use the phone in the basement to try to contact the police.

Unfortunately, the police were at the barricade they had just mentioned, and were all easily taken out by the horde of zombies. Seeing no other way out, Burt called the number on the barrel and explained to the people in the army what had happened.

"What are they doing, man?" Spider insisted, gripping his sledgehammer tighter.

Burt looked over at them as he held the phone to his ear.

"Hang on a second, would you?" he asked the person on the other end.

"Oh, it's weird," he said, turning towards the punks. "These people seems to say they... They've been waiting for this to happen, apparently they've got some sort of uh, contingency plan to deal with it."

"Well, that's great!" Casey exclaimed happily, holding her hammer and looking at Spider.

"What is this plan?" Spider asked suspiciously as his friends looked at Burt happily.

His suspicions were about to be proved rightful.

After a few seconds, Burt leaned down on the barrel, at least, until he heard the high pitched sound of something falling.

"Hey, listen," he said to the punks. "You hear anything?"

After a few more seconds, the earth shook and fire rained down the stairs as a nuclear bomb blew up the town of Louisville, Kentucky. The group managed to get down low and cover their heads, similar to kids practicing a tornado drill in schools. After a few seconds of the fire raging, Spider eventually looked up, ash covering his face. He stood up and was followed by Chuck and Casey. Burt stayed on his knees and looked up at the group.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted the government!" Spider exclaimed angrily. "They just killed the whole fucking town!"

"Oh, shit!" Chuck exclaimed.

"Freddy, Tina, Scuz, and Trash," Casey sobbed. "They're all dead!"

"This is your fault!" Spider yelled, pointing a finger at Burt. "You stupid, fucking honkey!" He gripped his sledgehammer. "You're dead meat, mother...!"

He was stopped when a well dressed man with dark hair and scars on his face wearing black leather gloves suddenly appeared behind him and put a mechanism up to his neck. The man shot a tranquilizer into Spider's neck, and the punk slowly fell to the ground, onto his knees.

"What..." Spider woozily said. "The... fu..."

He fell to the floor, unconscious.

"What the shit!" Casey exclaimed, right before two more well-dressed men did the same to her and Chuck.

The two of them fell to the floor, unconscious, and the three well-dressed men turned towards a scared looking Burt.

"Should we take him, too?" the ginger one with hair waved to the side asked the scarred faced one.

"He could be useful," the scarred faced one answered. "You saw how violent he was back in the funeral home."

"Wait a second," Burt exclaimed with his hands up in surrender. "How could you have seen us at the funeral home? That isn't possible unless..."

He was interrupted when a young, blonde, well-dressed woman administered a tranquilizer into his neck from behind.

"We'll need those, too, right?" the girl asked, gesturing to the barrels of 2-4-5-Trioxin behind her.

"Yes," the scarred faced man answered. "If we want to use it to help the other people we get, then we'll need the original strain that caused it. But be careful. If that guy Frank, was able to start this whole mess by smacking a barrel, then they must not be in as good condition. Use extreme caution."

"Naturally," the black well-dressed man said. "When carrying around barrels of toxic zombie gas."

"And these guys?" the ginger man asked.

"Cryogenic sleep," the scarred faced man re-confirmed. "We need them to be capable enough once the time comes. And like we've proven ourselves, younger people can kick a lot more ass than typical people in their thirties."

"They'll still need the training," the ginger haired man said. "But we can take care of that once we get there."

"Where do we go next?" the blonde girl asked.

"1988," the scarred faced man answered. "We're getting teenagers, an old man, and a little boy."

"Find a way to re-phrase that," the black man said.

* * *

**Department of Water and Power for the Town of Westvale, 1988**

Jessie Wilson had one hell of a night.

He and his bully, Billy, had found an army barrel and Billy released gas that made him sick and spread to a nearby cemetery. Jessie managed to not breathe in the gas, and he went back to try to get the number off the barrel to call the army.

But once there, he found a new Tarman zombie. After Jessie pushed the Tarman into the river, he ran back home, just as the gas reanimated the people in the cemetery. Once he got home, he was able to call the army, just as scared grave robbers showed up and they had to run from the zombies. Jessie, his sister, Lucy, the tv repair man, Tom, and the grave robbers talked the doctor who lived a few houses down to drive them away.

At the request of one of the grave robbers' girlfriend, they drove to the hospital as two of the grave robbers had gotten sick from breathing in the gas. While Doc Mandel watched over the two, Jessie, Lucy, and Tom went to the Wilson grandparent's house to get some guns. They went back to the hospital to pick up the others, where Doc announced that the two grave robbers were technically dead.

As the one grave robbers' girlfriend didn't like that claim, she drove off with them in Doc's car. Luckily, the others stole an ambulance and used it to escape. Crashing a zombie into an electrical sign, they discovered that high electrical surges can kill the zombies.

Since the army wouldn't let them out, confusing them for zombies, the group put together a plan to lead the zombies to a power station with cow brains, where they used the gears to electrocute and kill all the zombies, even a zombified Billy. There might have been a few bumps in the road along the way, due to the aforementioned zombie Billy, but they got the job done and killed all the zombies, even one that looked like Michael Jackson.

"You did good, kid," Tom told Jessie as they started walking out of the power station.

"Thanks," Jessie praised the older man.

"You're still a little shit," Lucy commented. "But I love you, anyway."

She kissed him on the head.

"The feeling's mutual," Jessie said, smiling up at Lucy.

"And I'm starved," Doc told them, waving around his pipe. "How about a bite to eat?"

The others grimaced at that, remembering what just happened with all the zombies.

"I mean," Doc started. "Well, you know what I mean."

"Maybe we could have a little glass of something," Doc continued as military soldiers ran around, trying to contain the problem. "A little liabation."

He laughed and put an arm around Jessie's shoulder.

"Tell me, my son," Doc continued to Jessie. "Have you ever had a Shirley Temple?"

"No," Jessie admitted.

"Uh, a Horse's Neck?" Doc tried again.

"No," Jessie said.

"Uh, a Purple Knee-High?" Doc tried again.

"No," Jessie said, once again.

"Well, tell me this," Doc tried again. "Have you ever seen a grown man drunk?"

"Yes," Jessie said as they walked out the gates of the power station.

They stopped their pace as a well-dressed man with scars on his face approached them.

"Mr and Miss Wilson," the man announced. "Mr Essex. Doctor Mandel. I need you to come with me and my associates."

He gestured to his equally well-dressed partners near a van.

"Uh, why?" Tom asked, rightfully suspicious.

"We have a few questions about what happened here tonight," the scarred faced man answered.

"Do you report to the guys in the army who have the barrels?" Jessie asked.

"Actually," the scarred faced man answered. "We report to the guys that made the chemical, above the army soldiers."

The wide eyes stares from the members of the group confirmed that he had gotten them. They followed him back to his van.

"Can I at least get a drink?" Doc asked.

"You can," the scarred faced man said. "But we might have to put it off for a little while."

"How long?" Doc asked as the scarred faced man slid open the van door.

The well-dressed man's associates quickly moved in and injected tranquilizers into the four people's necks, aided by a shorter well-dressed man with shaggy hair. With very quick speed, the group stuffed the unconscious people into the van before any of the military soldiers took notice.

"About 20 years," the scarred faced man answered as they slid the door closed.

"You know you didn't have to actually say that, right?" the shorter man asked with a Scottish accent. "They're already asleep."

"I know," the scarred faced man said, taking off his right glove as the hand had gotten sweaty. "But this is the first time I've ever gotten to be in charge of something. I want to be as smooth and calculated sounding as the others."

"Yeah, they do sound pretty smooth and calculated when they're explaining what we have to do," the ginger man agreed.

* * *

**Military Station, 1993**

It had been a hell of a night for Col. John Reynolds.

He had done a test of the 2-4-5-Trioxin in an attempt to prove that the zombies can be contained by freezing their heads, but the zombie cadaver shook it off after a while and killed a scientist. After they contained the zombie again, the scientist had come back after being bitten, and killed another scientist. Why the zombies were biting people on their limbs even though they only ate brains, Reynolds didn't know.

After that disaster, he was told that he would have to relocate again. And when he told his son, Curt, he stormed out with his girlfriend.

Unfortunately, it got even worse from there.

Curt's girlfriend, Julie, had died in an accident, so he used the Trioxin gas to bring her back, because they had apparently snuck in earlier and witnessed their initial test to bring back the cadaver. They escaped, and John's men alerted the police to let him know when they found the two of them.

After searching for hours and finding nothing, John personally led a squad through the sewers to an underground shelter, where they had to contain four infected civilians before containing Julie, who had taken to scarring herself as a distraction so she didn't eat Curt's brains out of hunger.

They took the infected civilians, including a store clerk and a man called Riverman, back to the station where it was decided that they would be put into exoskeletons and used as war machines.

Curt didn't want that to happen to the girl he loved, so he caused a havoc that the exosuit equipped Riverman took advantage of and helped them escape. Unfortunately, during all the chaos, many other zombies escaped and roamed around the factory while Curt and Julie tried finding a way out.

During all the commotion, Curt was bitten on the arm by a particularly nasty looking zombie that he had actually released when he brought back Julie.

They made their way in front of the incinerator room where they found John prying open one of the ways out with a fire extinguisher. He tried begging Curt to leave Julie and go with him, but Curt already knew it was too late for him. He turned and walked towards the incinerator with Julie, and John cried out in anguish for his son.

"John!" John's associate, Col. Peck exclaimed, running up to him. "You're gonna have to leave: they're sealing off the whole building!"

"No!" John exclaimed as Peck grabbed him by the shoulders. "Curt!"

"Damn it, let's go!" Peck exclaimed before hands grabbed him by his shoulders and pulled him off of John.

The scarred faced man injected John with the tranquilizer and passed the man's unconscious body off to the ginger haired man.

"What about him?" the short man asked, gesturing to Col. Peck.

"He's got another ten years left in him, at best," the scarred faced man said. "Even with the cryogenic sleep. He stays."

Peck watched in shock as they used an electric switch to open the gates. The black man lifted the flame thrower mounted on his shoulders and looked down the hallway where the zombies were coming.

"I might require some assistance," the black man admitted.

"I'm on it," the blonde girl announced, electricity crackling around her fingers.

As they walked down the hallway, the scarred faced man turned toward the ginger man.

"Call in Harkness," he told his associate. "We all know I'm not that strong, and I'm gonna need help carrying them."

"And with my height," the short man said. "And lack of upper body strength, I'm not a good option."

"On it," the ginger haired man said.

Peck watched in confusion and amazement as the scarred faced man walked down one of the hallways, and the short man walked over to him.

"Don't worry," the short man told him in his accented voice. "This'll all be over soon, and you'll think this was just a dream."

* * *

**Amphitheater, Halloween**

It had been a hell of a night for Julian and his friends. Or, rather, a hell of a week for them.

After Julian had found a barrel in his uncle's house and presented it to Cody, the young black man had done tests to determine that it had hallucinogenic factors in it. Their DJ friend, Jeremy tried it and informed them that it caused quite a trip. Julian and his girlfriend, Jenny, who also happened to be Jeremy's sister, insisted that they leave whatever was in the container alone until they figured out what it was.

Instead, Cody, Jeremy, and Cody's girlfriend, Shelby, used what was in the container and made it into a drug called Z that they sold to the people of their college campus through their drug dealer friend, Skeet.

Unfortunately, some students used too much at once, which caused them to turn into zombies.

Becky, being the smart girl that she was, figured out that something was wrong when she saw the two with decaying skin. Unfortunately, not before they scratched her boyfriend, Artie. Becky spent the night being chased around by the zombified Artie until they reached the amphitheater where the Halloween rave was supposed to be. The guys there helped contain Artie and had some stoners try to take him to a hospital.

During this, two Russian spies, Gino and Aldo had arrived, looking for the Tryoxin-5 canister. They confronted Julian, who claimed to know nothing about anything at his uncle's house.

While they did that, Jenny tried doing her own tests with the Tryoxin with lab rats in the science lab. This led to one of the rats biting and infecting a vegetarian. Very ironic.

While Becky, Cody, and Julian made their way back to campus to help Jenny, the Russians witnessed that the zombified Artie had escaped his confines and started eating the stoners. Wanting to kill the zombie, and put the poor stoners out of their misery, they blew up the car with a rocket launcher.

Back at campus, the vegetarian had bitten and infected other vegetarians, and they were running around, trying to eat as many people as they could. By the time the Russians had caught up, they had already started biting the cheerleaders. They killed the zombies and put down the people that had been bitten.

In the labs, Julian, Jenny, and friends discovered that the container had been opened and the zombified rats had escaped. While trying to find them, Julian came across multiple zombies. Figuring out what was going on, the four dispatched the zombies with weapons from a nearby tool box.

As the other three tried consoling Jenny on the floor, they looked up to the top of the stairs to see a Tarman zombie screaming for brains. Luckily the Russians showed up in time and scared him away with their guns.

After trading stories, the teens and Russians were then informed by Cody that Jeremy and Skeet had 500 hits of Z that they planned on passing out at the Halloween raver that night. They agreed to team up to go there, the Russians to get the rest of the Z, Cody to get Shelby with Becky's help, and Jenny to get Jeremy with Julian's help.

After they arrived and the Russians gave them guns, the groups split up while the Russians stole some Valkyrie costumes from some girls, who were immediately attacked by zombies, probably because they were topless.

All around the group, people were taking Z, or had already turned into zombies and were attacking others, but with how intense the rave was going, no one took too much notice to it.

Cody eventually found Shelby, who was being chased by a topless zombie girl. He used his gun to at first clear away the crowd so he could get a clear shot, then accidentally shoot a guy, uttering "Hope he was a zombie."

He shot the one topless zombie girl, but was tackled by a zombified Skeet as Shelby was cornered by the other topless zombie girl. Luckily Becky was there to kill zombie Skeet, and he could use his last bullet to save Becky.

Although they were curious as to how Cody's revolver shot more times than the amount of ammo it could actually hold, Becky was more willing to chastising him for wasting more than half his ammo just scaring people away. He was supposed to be the smart one!

During this, Julian and Jenny had found Jeremy had already turned into a zombie. Julian used up all his ammo killing zombies that came near them trying to escape, so Jenny was forced to kill her zombified brother before he could eat Julian.

Things had gotten so out of hand that Aldo and Gino were forced to call in for backup from the American military. Unfortunately, the American military's solution hadn't changed at all since the 80's: kill everyone.

Cody and Becky managed to catch up to Julian and Jenny just as Shelby was killed by a helicopter's mini-gun. They had to drag Cody away and hide in one of the inner parts of the walls just as the helicopter shot a missile into the middle of the amphitheater.

The next morning, the small group walked out onto the stage to observe the massive crater and dead bodies around it.

"Holy sweet Jesus!" Julian exclaimed.

"Damn," Jenny agreed.

"They seriously just killed everybody," Becky said. "That's pretty fucked up."

"Screw pretty," Cody said. "That's _very _fucked up."

"Well, I guess I was right," Julian said, putting an arm around Jenny. "It was a hell of a party."

The others chuckled at his attempt at a joke.

The stage then shook as Aldo walked up to them, still wearing the Valkyrie costume.

"Hello, guys," he announced. "Have you seen Gino?"

"No," Jenny and Julian both shook their heads.

"Let's get the hell out of here," Aldo told them with his hands on his hips. "Before the army comes, yeah?"

"Give us a minute," Cody argued. "We went through a lot of heavy shit in the last few hours."

"Man," Becky exclaimed, looking at Cody. "Were you lucky I was there. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't shot Skeet?"

Cody looked at her with a slight smile.

"I would have taken him," he tried saying smoothly.

"He would have taken you," Becky countered. "Or rather, he would have taken a piece of you."

The others laughed at Cody's expanse, including Aldo.

"Hate to interrupt this little get together," a voice announced.

The group turned towards the remains of the stage to see the scarred faced man walking towards them with the short man and the black man.

"But there are very important things we need to discuss," the scarred faced man said, stopping and facing the group.

"Who the hell are you?" Julian asked.

"You look a little young to be a member of the American military," Aldo commented.

"That's because I'm not in the military," the scarred faced man said. "Or the army, or any form of residence that is okay with using the chemicals in those tanks to turn innocent people into brain eating monsters."

The small group exchanged looks, curious about how this man knew about what had transpired here recently.

"I'm sorry if this seems a little rushed," the scarred faced man said. "But there are very important things we need to talk about, that I'm sure you all would be interested in."

"Why would we be interested in going anywhere with you?" Jenny asked, rightfully suspicious.

"Because we know who made that chemical," the scarred faced man said. "We know where to find more of it, and with your help, we think we can stop the people who are using it."

That got their attention.

"So are you in?" the scarred faced man asked.

The five all looked at each other, and a look of understanding passed between them.

"I'm in," Julian said, determined.

"If my boy's in," Cody said, patting Julian on the shoulder. "I'm in."

"Me, too," Becky agreed, determined.

"Me, too," Jenny added.

"Me, as well," Aldo declared. "But can we stop for Krispy Kreme first?"

"Sure," the scarred faced man said. "That works, because there's quite a few others we've gathered that you'll need to talk to before we tell you the full scale of what we'll be doing.

"All right," Cody said. "We get to make some new friends."

"Find Gino first," the scarred faced man told them. "Make sure he's on the same page."

"But of course," Aldo told them. "He and I must first change out of these costumes."

The others went off in search of Gino, and the short man followed, to make sure no one would just run and leave the whole thing behind. Once they were out of earshot, the black man turned towards the scarred faced man.

"You sure this is a good idea?" the black man asked.

The scarred faced man shrugged his shoulders.

"The guy in charge wanted someone to do this because _he _thought it was a good idea. I volunteered to lead it because it's time for me to prove my worth."

"You have plenty of worth," the black man told him. "But this might be in a little over our heads. This is the kind of stuff we usually leave to the big guys."

"Which is why I'm doing this," the scarred faced man said. "I can do as much as the big guys, and I know this will show it to them."

"Pretty sure they're already aware of that fact," the black man tried telling him. "But you won't change your mind, anyway, so why would i bother. One thing though."

To further his point, the black man raised one finger.

"This group now consists of three 80's punks, a business owner with surprising anger levels, a kid, two high school graduates, and older doctor, a military Col, four surprisingly crafty teenagers, and two bumbling Russian agents. How are we gonna do this without them trying to kill each other."

The scarred faced man shrugged his shoulders.

"We'll just have to wait and see."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how I didn't notice that I forgot the tag for Casey until after I finished the chapter, but I wasn't about to go through that and delete all the others to put her up at the top. That's an issue for another day. Oh, and I am aware that Necropolis and Rave to the Grave weren't that well liked. They were actually kind of hated. And quite frankly... I don't care. I like them, so they're included in this


	2. Explaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The survivors of each Trioxin outbreak are brought together and explained a few things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really, the idea for this started with the explanation of why the Trioxin was different in 4 and 5 was part of an idea I had for a recap in a possible new sequel they could do. But, given the reception those two got, I doubt they'll ever revive the series, so I figured, why not just do it myself, but make it as bat-shit crazy as I would want it?

Julian remained apprehensive the whole drive from the amphitheater. After the whole mess they had gone through with the T-5 barrels, and seeing so many people he knew being eaten by zombies or blown up by a missile, he was naturally a little shaky, even without the suspicious guys in suits that wanted to talk to them. He was only half sure he wanted to actually go with these guys.

But, when the guy with the scars on his face promised that they could get back at the people who made the stuff from the barrel, the same people who were really responsible for all of this, he couldn't pass up the opportunity. Especially after what happened to Jeremy. So, the four teens crammed themselves in the backseat of the Russians' van once again as they followed the well-dressed people in their own van.

Julian looked to his right at Jenny, who was sitting next to him, staring out the window somberly. He could tell that having to shoot her own brother was still having a troubling effect on her. It was kind of clear from how she hesitated to shoot him until Julian was screaming for his life as Jeremy was about to eat his brains. Even if he had changed into a zombie, since they could still speak, and still had some motor functions, he figured that she was hoping at the time that there was still a little bit of him left in there.

But Julian could tell, immediately when Jeremy crashed through the second floor window, fell to the ground, and stood up like nothing had happened, he was already gone.

Julian put his hand on Jenny's shoulder and kept it there, letting her know that he was there for her. As if she could read his mind, Jenny put her right hand on top of Julian's, thankful that he was there.

Julian then looked to his left to see Cody and Becky. Cody was directly next to him, looking down, and Becky was next to the window, looking out. They weren't doing too well from the incident, either, since both of their paramours had been killed.

Becky had earlier admitted that she felt both ashamed and guilty for not managing to save Artie, even though they tried to convince her there was nothing she could have done. They all missed the signs of the zombies. She argued, though, claiming that she knew there was something wrong when she saw two frat brothers with decayed skin, but she couldn't stop them from scratching Artie. She just continued staring out the window, trying to feel a bit better by reminding herself that she survived.

Cody, though, was worse. He was the one who made the drug that turned people into zombies in the first place, so he especially felt guilty, claiming that this whole thing was all his fault. While the others knew this was true, they knew that if he agreed with him, he would feel even worse. Which would be amazing considering he already felt like Becky should have let Skeet eat him.

They tried convincing him that those thoughts would change within time, but he just looked down in shame, not entirely sure he believed them.

"I just hope these guys are telling the truth," Cody finally said after an hour, looking up out the windshield. "After everything we've been through, I'd hate for us to go out in a trap."

"I think they might be telling the truth," Becky interjected. "They don't look like typical army guys. I mean, what army hires a guy that's four feet tall?"

"You'd be surprised," Gino said from the front seat as he wiped his hands with a napkin. "We've seen some weird things over the years, eh, Aldo?"

He elbowed Aldo slightly in the arm as the man drove.

"She did not ask if it was weird, Gino," Aldo told him. "Just how often you'd see it. And she does have a point, you don't see it a lot."

"Whatever," Jenny finally said. "As long as these guys claim that we can stop whoever made that stuff, I couldn't care less."

"Even if they're lying?" Julian asked, looking at her.

Jenny looked at him.

"If they're lying," Jenny told him. "Then we wait for the chance, then we run like hell."

"What if they've got guns?" Cody asked, looking at her.

"They don't look like they've got guns," Becky interjected.

"Neither did we," Julian remarked. "When we went through the rave. Neither did these guys as they went through the campus."

"That is true," Aldo said. "If you're carrying around guns in public, then you want to be able to hide them."

"You won't believe how many scared frenzies I accidentally caused before I learned how to hide it," Gino added with a laugh.

"Gino, my friend," Aldo said with a smile. "With you, it is very much believable."

"Hey!" Gino exclaimed.

The kids chuckled at Gino's expanse, and after a second, he joined them.

After driving after the well-dressed peoples' van for another hour, the group started to get a little irritated.

"How far are we going?" Julian asked, annoyed. "I don't think there's even anything out here."

He wasn't wrong. For the last half our, they had been driving through grasslands and hadn't seen a touch of civilization anywhere. They were admittedly a little surprised, because they didn't think too many places like this existed in America anymore.

"They're probably taking us so far out that no one will hear it when they shoot us," Cody suggested.

"Cody," Becky looked at him, annoyed. "These Russian guys turned out to be nice. Why can't you believe these guys will be nice?"

"We're not really that nice," Aldo admitted. "We blew up the car with your zombie boyfriend."

Becky looked surprised at that.

"How are we already so desensitized that that doesn't even surprise me?" Julian asked.

"I have no idea," Jenny admitted.

After a few more minutes of driving, a building came into view, and the gang was honestly a little surprised.

They were arriving at a large compound that looked livable. There was a gigantic driveway that looked like it could fit dozens of cars, a helicopter pad, and a separate building that they figured housed small airplanes. Closer to the compound was a giant grassy area that substituted as a front yard and backyard. Nearby was a giant pool that was as low as two feet and as deep as ten feet. The compound itself was big enough to possibly fit dozens of people in the five or six floors the building had. On a part of the building, there was a giant circle near the top with the design of a shurikan, the word "Unlimited" next to it.

The group followed the well-dressed peoples' van into the parking lot and parked next to them. The two groups slowly exited their vehicles and met in front of them.

"Welcome to the outpost for the Unlimited," the scarred faced man announced. "For this section, at least."

"What do you mean 'this section'?" Julian asked. "Like this country?"

"This planet," the scarred faced man casually said before he pulled out a phone.

He pressed a few buttons and put his phone to his ear, ignoring the surprised and confused looks the group was giving his phone.

"Jerome, it's me," the scarred faced man said. "Because I'm in front of the others and we haven't gotten to that point yet, that's why. Yeah, we're here. Are the others ready? Well, that's understandable. Cryogenic sleep has to be _very _cold. Will they be alert enough for the conference? All right. Get the hot chocolate, that should help. We'll be up in a few minutes. Yes, you can have some hot chocolate, too. Matter of fact, make a pot, we could all use some. All right. See you then."

He hung up and put his phone in his pocket. Looking at the group of people, he was a little curious about why they were looking at him in surprise.

"It's 2006," the black man reminded him.

The scarred faced man looked at the black man, then nodded his head, saying "Oh,"

"That was my cell phone," he told the group. "It's a little advanced."

The scarred faced man turned towards the building.

"Right this way," he announced, starting to walk towards the building.

"Okay, this is getting interesting," Julian announced. "What the hell is cryogenic sleep?"

"Being put on ice," Cody told him. "Having your body preserved for years, and waking up like nothing happened. Like what they claimed they did to Walt Disney."

"Should we actually go?" Jenny asked. "This all seems a little strange."

"It does," Cody admitted. "But you can't argue that we could use some hot chocolate."

"Amen to that," Becky agreed, nodding her head. "But first..."

She gave both Gino and Aldo purple nurples through their shirts, and both the Russians swore in their native languages.

"That's for not telling me about Artie sooner," Becky told them before she started following the well dressed men.

"You guys are lucky that's all she did," Julian laughed as they started following Becky's example.

The group of teens and Russians followed the well dressed men through the entrance of the compound, which was a large room with a giant glass wall on the left side, revealing the small courtyard that had a couple of nice looking benches, looking like a nice place to sit. They went through the room and towards a set of stairs up to a second floor. The well dressed men led them through a couple of more hallways before arriving at a living room like area. They walked through the living room before reaching a set of double doors. The scarred faced man stopped and turned to face the teens and the Russians.

"The others that we mentioned are in here," he explained. "Go easy on them, they still need time to adjust."

"From the cryogenic sleep?" Becky asked.

"I probably should have been a little quieter when I was on the phone," the scarred faced man remarked at his own expanse.

"If these people were in cryogenic sleep," Aldo pointed out. "Then why were they put in there? And why did you take them out now?"

"What year is each of them from?" Gino added.

"All important questions," the short man said as he walked to stand next to the scarred faced man. "And if you wait for a few more seconds, we will answer them all."

"The people inside have the same questions," the black man told them, standing next to his associates. "We didn't exactly feel like explaining it multiple times, so we waited until we had gathered you all to explain."

"Wait a second," Julian remarked. "If they have the same exact questions, did these people come willingly?"

"No," the scarred faced man admitted as he turned around and opened the double doors.

The group exchanged nervous looks and begrudgingly followed the scarred faced man into the room at the short man and the black man's insistences.

They were not expecting what they found on the other side of the doors, though.

Nine people sat around a large conference table of varying ages. Three people sat together on one side that looked like typical 80's teenagers. One was a black guy with a Rick James inspired hairstyle, one guy dressed surprisingly well, and a girl with a slight faux hawk with blue highlights. An older man sat a few seats down from the teens, and glanced up at them every once in a while with fear in his eyes. On the other side of the table sat two teenagers, a little kid, and an older man wearing glasses that had a glass of bourbon next to him. Sitting a few seats down from them was a man dressed in a military like uniform.

All nine of them were shivering with blankets around them, and mugs of hot chocolate in front of them.

"The cryogenic sleep people," Becky whispered to her friends.

"Sit," the scarred faced man instructed the teens and the Russians.

The group split up and sat near the front of the table. Cody, Julian, and Jenny sat near the 80's punks, and Becky, Aldo, and Gino sat next to the older man with the bourbon.

"Hi," Cody tried introducing himself to the others. "I'm Cody. This is my boy, Julian, and his girlfriend, Jenny."

He gestured to the his friends.

"I'm Becky," Becky announced waving her hand. "These idiots are Aldo Serra and Gino."

The Russians waved then looked at Becky scornfully for the "idiots" comment.

"I'm Chuck," the well dressed 80's punk announced. "These are my friends, Casey and Spider."

He gestured to his friends, then the guy sitting a few seats down from them.

"And that idiot's Burt Wilson," he said, venom in his voice.

The little kid and teenage girl sitting opposite of them perked up at that name.

"I'm Jessie Wilson," the kid announced. "This is my sister, Lucy."

They looked at Burt expectantly.

"I think it's just a coincidence," Burt said, embarrassed. "I don't recognize either of you. Sorry."

The siblings looked at each other, then back at the table, defeated.

"I'm Tom," the other teenager announced. "I'm a handyman."

"And I'm Doc Mandel," the older man said before taking a sip of his drink. "Damn, that's a good bourbon."

The others looked expectantly at the man in the military uniform. Confused, he looked up at them, then looked back down.

"I'm Col. John Reynolds," he begrudgingly said. "I was in charge of a division that tried to use the Trioxin gas to make super soldiers."

Everyone looked at him, surprised he shared so much.

"What other reason would these people bring us all here?" Reynolds asked, looking from the people around him, then at the scarred faced man at the front. "Unless we were all connected by something important?"

"Trioxin," Spider announced. "That's that shit that was in the barrel, wasn't it?"

"You've seen the barrels, too?" Julian asked, surprised.

"So have I," Jessie announced.

"You've all had some kind of encounter with the Trioxin," the scarred faced man announced, garnering everyone's attention. "Just in your own ways."

At that, the ginger haired man and the blonde girl walked in, carrying two more trays with mugs of hot chocolate on them.

"My name is Raleigh Bryant," the scarred faced man finally introduced himself. He gestured to each of his well-dressed partners as he continued. "These are my associates..."

"Rigby Jerome." The ginger haired man.

"Julie Cooper." The blonde girl.

"Carter Kane." The black man.

"And James Blake." The short man.

"People call me Frodo," the short man interjected. "I'm okay with it."

"Like Lord of the Rings?" Jenny asked with a slight smile on her face.

"Exactly like Lord of the Rings," Frodo smiled as he looked down.

"Look, that's fascinating and all," Burt interjected. "But cut to the part where you explain to us how we're all connected to the barrels."

"Right to the point then," Raleigh observed. "All right."

He grabbed a remote off the table and pressed a button. Gears on the wall next to him opened up, revealing a large flat screen TV. The people from the 80's and 90's were very surprised, because they didn't think TVs could look like this.

"You were all survivors of outbreaks caused because of the 2-4-5-Trioxin, or Tryoxin-5 chemicals," Raleigh explained. "That brought back the dead, and made them into brain eating monsters."

"Spider, Chuck, Casey, and Mr. Wilson," Raleigh said, turning on the TV, which showed clips of the four of them back in Louisville, fighting zombies and running for their lives. "Because of your friends Frank and Freddy, and outbreak broke out, and Mr Wilson and his friend, Ernie, accidentally made it all worse when they burned the things that reanimated in their warehouse, which released the pure form of the gas into the air, creating acid rain. The rain fell on a nearby graveyard, reanimating all of the undead."

"I knew it!" Spider exclaimed angrily. He then looked towards Burt. "I'm gonna kick your fucking ass!"

He started to stand up, and Carter and Rigby rushed towards him and managed to push him back into his seat.

"Try to leave the death threats until the end," Rigby suggested. "This is a long presentation you're gonna want to see."

Spider begrudgingly sat back down and looked back towards the TV with Chuck and Casey.

"I like him," Cody whispered to Julian.

"Of course you do," Julian whispered back as a joke. "You're finally not the only black guy."

The two chuckled as they looked back at the TV.

"Now the military wasn't going to let you live after they blew up Louisville if they knew you were alive," Raleigh continued. "Since you had the barrels of Trioxin, they couldn't risk any of you going to the press. So, we incapacitated you so that you wouldn't be killed, and put you in cryogenic sleep until the time was right."

"What does 'incapacitated' mean?" Jessie asked anyone in the room.

"To steal," Gino answered. "They kidnapped them."

"Cryogenic sleep?" Casey asked. "You mean we've been frozen for years?"

"Most of you have," Raleigh confirmed.

"Then why are we here now?" Chuck asked. "What possible reason could you have for..."

"Leave all questions until the end, please!" Raleigh announced, with a surprising amount of authority in his voice.

Chuck shut up.

"Thank you. Now..." Raleigh turned to the TV. "Jessie, Lucy, Tom, and Doc Mandel."

The TV started showing clips of the four of them as they made their way through their own zombie infested town.

"Jessie's idiot 'friend' released the gas," Raleigh explained. "And brought back another cemetery of zombies. This time, they actually managed to figure out that a strong electric shock can kill a 2-4-5-Trizombie, so they lured all of them to their town's power station as part of a trap. They killed all the zombies, and we apprehended them before the military there could dispose of them."

"Thanks for the drink, at least," Doc said, raising the glass. "Just wish I didn't have to wait almost 20 years to get it."

"Sorry," Raleigh said, changing images on the TV again.

"Col. Reynolds," he announced as the TV now started showing images of Reynolds doing the tests with undead cadavers. "Like he said, he wanted to use the zombies as war machines. Bag them up once he was done by freezing their heads. Unfortunately, while they were doing the test, Reynolds' son, Curt, and his girlfriend, Julie, had snuck in to watch them. They left before the experiment went to shit."

The images then showed a doctor getting his fingers bitten off by the zombie, then brutally killed by it.

"Why does that guy look like Scuz?" Casey whispered to her friends.

"I have no idea," Spider whispered in equal confusion.

"Now," Raleigh continued. "After Curt and Julie ran away, Julie was in an accident that killed her." The clips on the monitors showed exactly what he was explaining. "Of course, seeing what the gas from the barrels did earlier, Curt got the bright idea to use it to bring her back. Unfortunately, that's when things went to shit."

The TV then started playing the clips of things that went wrong. The zombie from the canister eating some poor guy's brains, Julie biting a guy on the arm, Julie eating a dead shop owner's brains, then her jumping off a bridge. The kind Riverman helped Curt and Julie escape the gang of thugs pissed that Julie bit their man on the arm. Then the gang caught up. Julie ripped the leader's head off, but some of his spine was still attached to his body. She bit off the other guy's lower lip, then scratched up the girl's leg with her knew sharp body accessories. Curt, Julie, and Riverman tried escaping through Riverman's underground home as the gang very quickly became zombies. While Julie ate some of Riverman's brains, Reynolds and his crew caught up and contained all the zombies, including Julie and Riverman.

"John tried to use Julie to help show that the zombies aren't just mindless beings," Raleigh explained for the man's behalf. "That they have a way of thinking, that they _can_ think. But his new bosses didn't care. They just wanted to stuff the zombies into exoskeletons and make uber soldiers. Like they planned on doing with everyone there. Luckily and unfortunately..."

He turned to the screen to show Curt causing a riot which helped the exoskeleton equipped Riverman zombie escape, which then caused a bunch of barrels to release their zombies. Riverman helped Curt and Julie escape by opening and closing the gate to the lab they were in before the scientist in charge blew off his limbs with a shotgun. Luckily she got her just desserts when more barrels opened up, and the zombies ate her.

"This next part confuses me, though," Raleigh admitted, as the video continued.

Curt and Julie were running through the hallways of the facility as the zombies slowly chased after them, including the messed up zombie from earlier. Cody and Becky quickly realized what confused Raleigh and shared looks of equal confusion.

"I thought Riverman closed the gate back there," Becky observed.

"He did," Tom pointed out, gesturing to the TV. "We all saw it."

"Then how did the other zombies escape?" Cody asked. "And that ugly-ass one, I'm pretty sure they would have contained him, too. How'd he get out?"

The others took in this information, and looked up thinking.

"Yeah, what the hell?" Spider agreed.

"How did that happen?" Jenny asked.

"It makes no sense," Aldo declared.

"What, did they have teleporters?" Jessie tried joking, which a few people did laugh at.

The images continued to show the nasty looking zombie biting Curt on the arm, at which John looked down in sadness. The two walked towards the incinerator, and the video ended.

"After that happened," Raleigh explained. "The government realized that the regular form of Trioxin made the zombies too powerful. They needed a way to take out the zombies easily, in case things went wrong. So, they had their top scientists take half of the barrels and adjust the gas and the zombies within them. The zombies still talked and ate brains, but they became slower, and weaker. And, most importantly, headshots could kill them. It stopped being 2-4-5-Trioxin, and became Tryoxin-5. The form that the six of you are familiar with."

Raleigh gestured to the teens and the Russians sitting closest to him.

"Julian Garrison," Raleigh said, turning the TV on again, showing the clips of what he was talking about. "Your uncle, Charles, bought three remaining barrels from Russians in Chernobyl your senior year of high school. There were supposed to be six, but, as usual, something went wrong."

The clips showed a guy getting the T-5 on his hand, and then becoming a zombie. He ate his partner's head, and Charles' shot him in the head.

"Tell me," Raleigh said, looking at the six as he rested his hands on the back of a chair. "Have any of you heard of Hybra Tech?"

"That chemical company that went under last year?" Jenny asked.

"Yeah, they made practically everything," Julian remarked. "Why?"

"Because, Julian," Raleigh continued. "You, Cody, and Becky here infiltrated it last year and had to deal with a zombie outbreak."

Cody, Julian, and Becky looked at each other in confusion, trying to see if the others knew some familiarity in the scarred faced man's words. They didn't, so they just looked at him.

"No, we didn't," Cody said.

"I'm pretty sure we'd remember trying to survive a zombie outbreak," Becky pointed out, at which Julian nodded in agreement.

Raleigh turned towards the TV and pressed another button. A video showing the three unconscious on tables, with Charles and another scientist standing near them, appeared.

"They won't remember anything?" Charles asked the scientist.

"Nothing," the scientist confirmed, and Julian's jaw dropped. "Not the zombies, not seeing all their friends being eaten, not seeing Mr. and Mrs. Garrison as our super soldiers, it'll all be gone."

"Perfect," Charles grinned before looking down at Julian and his friends. "I do wish they didn't have to be so intrusive, it would have saved a lot of their friends' lives. And Jake..." He looked up. "He was so young. I wish he didn't have to die. But... science moves on." He grinned again. "Make sure they wake up in the county hospital, have them come up with some bullshit excuse. I have to get back to work."

The clip ended, and Raleigh turned towards the teens. Becky, Cody, and Julian were reasonably shocked. Julian looked down in sadness, at which Jenny took his left hand, and Cody patted his right shoulder.

"Your uncle's an asshole," Spider announced. "If you want, I'll find him and bust his damn head open with a hammer."

Julian nodded his appreciation and looked towards Spider.

"Thanks," he said. "But he was killed a week ago."

"Damn," Spider said, sounding actually upset.

Julian turned towards Raleigh.

"What happened to us?" he asked. "What happened at Hybra Tech?"

Cody and Becky nodded their heads, wanting similar answers. Raleigh turned towards the TV.

"Your friend, Zeke, was taken as part of Necropolis, their testing with the zombies," he explained as videos played, showing what he was explaining. "Your guys' friend, Katie, his ex-girlfriend, and a girl you were into..." Julian looked at him, wondering why that was important. "... Saw him arriving on a security camera, even though the hospital you were at told you he had died from the anesthesia. So, Cody hacked into the computers to see that he was gonna be used as part of an experiment. You had already asked your uncle, but the dick told you that there was no reason for Zeke to be there, so you knew he was lying. That led to you guys deciding to go in and get him."

"Your friend, Carlos, wasn't a big fan of that plan," Raleigh said as the videos continued. Their whorish friend, Mimi distracted Katie's security camera partner, Hector, so she could shut them all down, and hide the group getting in. Julian, Becky, Cody, Carlos, and their other friend, Darren, snuck in through underground tunnels, where Carlos shot two homeless people that had turned into zombies. Once they got into the vents within the walls, where they found that Julian's little brother, Jake, had snuck in after them.

They then reached an armory where they found Charles. He reluctantly led them through the hallway with the zombie cages towards Zeke. Carlos freed him by shooting the control panel, and Katie had to get to work to shut down the alarm. While she did that, Cody showed them a room where they made zombie clones that were slowly growing to a good size in test capsules. Charles tried giving a monologue that this was all for world domination, but he never explained how.

At Cody and Carlos' insistence, Charles begrudgingly admitted that Julian's believed to be dead parents were in the building. While they were distracted by a test tube zombie, Charles escaped and locked them inside. Just as Katie shut down the alarm, Carlos shot the controls to that room door as well. This time when Katie tried putting in the code to shut down the alarm, it caused a security failure.

"And this is when everything starts going to shit," Raleigh informed them.

The security failure unlocked all of the gates containing all of the zombies. Now released, they didn't hesitate to eat the people around them. The teens tried escaping, but as they were waiting for the elevator, Darren got his head eaten, and Zeke was bitten on the neck. Katie saw the escaped zombies eating people on the monitors, and ran to get Mimi and Hector, while the group armed themselves in the armory and crawled into the vents to escape.

Katie did manage to find the two, but they were quickly attacked and swarmed by zombies, so Katie had to leave them.

The group in the vents then got separated by a zombie breaking the vents. Julian, Cody, and Carlos went to the tower where Charles said Julian's parents were, and Becky, Jake, and Zeke tried to find the garage so they could find a car to escape.

Julian, Cody, and Carlos quickly found the tower, taking out zombies along the way.

"You said now these zombies can be killed by a headshot?" Tom asked.

"Yep," Carter confirmed with a nod of his head.

Tom then looked towards Cody.

"I would reprimand you guys for shooting it in the torso if you actually had your memories about this," he told the black man.

"I would be reprimanding you guys if it didn't somehow work," Chuck said, gesturing to the TV.

They had gotten to the part where Cody, Julian, and Carlos were in the lobby of the building, and were shooting all the approaching zombies.

"Wait," Gino pointed out. "If shooting them a bunch in the torso worked in this scenario, then why didn't it work with us?"

He looked at Aldo.

"I have no idea, my friend," Aldo shrugged his shoulders.

On the screen, the three teens were now fighting the zombies hand to hand, and doing surprisingly well. Once they were sure they had dispatched their zombies, Julian and Cody ran to the elevator. Carlos stayed back for a bit, continuing to beat down on his zombie, but when he finally ran towards the elevator, he had gotten surprised from behind by the zombie Julian thought he had killed. The zombie killed Carlos as Julian and Cody watched in horror, right before the elevator doors closed.

The clip then changed to show that during this, Zeke, Becky, and Jake had reached the garage and taken some keys, looking for a good car. Unfortunately, the bite on Zeke's neck was also pulsing, showing that things were about to take a dark turn for him.

Cody and Julian meanwhile found that Julian's parents had been turned into zombies and fitted into super soldiers, just waiting to have the T-5 gas reanimate them. Julian begrudgingly left with Cody. Charles then showed up minutes later and reanimated the two, intending for them to hunt down the kids.

Becky, Zeke, and Jake had meanwhile found a car, and started to escape, but then Zeke turned and attacked Becky while she was driving. He didn't bite her, but he did reprimand her for still not taking the safety off on her handgun. She crashed the car, and they all fell unconscious.

The clips then showed Julian and Cody using their grappling lines to scale down the side of the building because zombies had chased them up onto the roof. They reached the ground and Julian picked up a gun just as the zombified forms of Mimi and Hector showed up.

"This is probably my favorite part," Raleigh said with a slight smile.

"I can't shoot her, she's my friend," the Julian on screen said to Cody. He then said softly, "I lost my virginity to her."

Raleigh and his well-dressed associated laughed at that. As did the Russians, the 80's punks, the Wilsons, Tom, Doc Mandel, and even Cody and Becky.

"I really said that?" Julian asked.

"Man, everybody knows your first time sucks!" Cody on the screen egged Julian on. "Split her damn head open!"

"Such a gentleman," Becky commented, smiling at Cody.

On the screen, Julian tried shooting the gun, but it clicked empty. Luckily a truck then ran over Mimi and Hector, and Katie motioned for them to get it, which they did.

It then cut to Becky and Jake. They had gotten out of the car and were shooting at the zombies, Becky with her handgun, and Jake with a homemade flamethrower. Unfortunately, Zeke then popped out of the car and ate the back of Jake's head. Becky tried shooting him, but the gun was empty. So, she picked up Jake's flamethrower and lit Zeke on fire. He ran away screaming as Becky held off the zombies with it.

"Jesus," Julian said, watching in sadness.

"That fucker!" Spider declared. "After you guys broke into that place to save his sorry ass!"

"Nice job, Beck," Cody told Becky.

"Thanks," Becky said, now remembering doing this.

Jenny put her arm around Julian and the two of them looked at each other, sympathetically.

"I guess we have more in common than we originally thought," Jenny said.

"I guess we do," Julian agreed.

They turned back to the screen to see that Julian and co. had arrived to pick up Becky. After Julian did an understandable amount of crying for his brother, and protesting to leaving his brother behind, they got back in the car and started driving away.

Then Julian's zombie dad got in front of the car and started shooting his wrist mounted mini-guns at them. Once the shooting stopped, Becky jumped out and threw a grenade at the zombie's feet. He exclaimed in surprise before it exploded. The group then ran away, not noticing the mini-guns were still working.

They then ran into zombie Zeke who accused Julian of making out with Katie. He then showed that Julian's zombie mom was also there, and she had a buzz-saw mounted to her wrist. While Julian and Zeke fist fought, with Julian not doing so well, Julian's mom tried killing the others. Becky then carefully led Julian's mom towards a power wire, which she sawed the buzz-saw into, electrocuting and killing her. Zeke had also thrown Julian onto the ground, thinking he was doing well, at which Julian revealed he had pulled the pin out of the grenade in the zombie's chest pocket. He then proceeded to blow up.

"Attaboy," Spider said, punching Julian on the shoulder in congratulations.

Julian rubbed his arm and uttered 'thanks' as the others also congratulated him.

"Not all of us have been able to do that," Jessie said. "Nice."

"Thanks," Julian said, looking back at the screen, then looking down, embarrassed, as it showed Katie consoling him on the ground.

The zombies then burst out of the doors of the facility, and the SWAT team showed up and shot and killed them all, even running over the head of Julian's mom. Once they thought the coast was clear, Julian's zombie dad popped up and shot his mini-gun at them, at which everyone ducked. The military then launched a grenade and blew up Julian's dad. Unfortunately, Katie got shot and died there in Julian's arms as he cried for her.

"Damn," Lucy said, surprised, as she looked at Julian. "That really must have been the worst day for you."

"Now a little part of me is wishing I never watched that," Julian said, putting his free hand on his head.

"I am sorry," Raleigh told Julian. "I know what it's like to lose the people you care about. A lot of us do. So just know, you're not alone."

"Yeah," Jenny agreed. "I'm here. Cody's here. Becky's here. These guy's seem nice enough."

"Hell, yeah, man," Spider said, patting the the guy in question on the shoulder. "If you want, I know where to get some weed."

"Thanks," Julian chuckled. "But I'm all right there."

"I wouldn't say no to the weed," Cody said.

"Hold on a second," Raleigh said. "There's one last outbreak you need to witness."

The TV then showed them first what happened to Charles. He tried selling the barrels to Russian spies, including Gino and Aldo, but they needed him to prove that it was the actual stuff. So, he used it to revive some cadavers, which understandably went wrong. Three people, including Charles himself, were bitten and killed, and Gino and Aldo escaped as they killed the zombies.

"After that," Raleigh explained to the people who didn't know the story. "The Russians here went searching for the barrels, which Julian found in Charles' attic. He and Cody did tests with one, and well..."

The clips then showed Jeremy tasting the Tryoxin and doing the crazy trip he mentioned. At Cody and Jenny's insistence, Cody and Jeremy agreed to leave it alone. The second the two of them left, the boys then made hundreds of hits of their drug, Z. In no time at all, people had started turning into zombies, starting with the two frat brothers that drew the Russians' attention.

The clips then showed Becky getting chased by zombie Artie to the amphitheater where the rave was gonna be. The guys contained Artie and stuffed him in the stoners' car. Then the group figuring out the truth about the zombies with the help of Aldo and Gino. Then Cody admitted there were the 500 hits of Z that were gonna be passed out at the Halloween Rave.

The others in the room that didn't know him looked at Cody like he was an idiot.

"Again," Cody said. "My bad."

"I will admit that it was clever of you to turn a dangerous government chemical into a drug," Casey said.

"It probably would have sold well," Doc agreed. "That is, until everyone started turning into zombies."

They then showed the clips of the Russians blowing up the car where zombie Artie was eating the stoners, which Becky watched sadly.

"Sorry you had to see that," Rigby said, patting her on the shoulder.

"We are sorry," Aldo told her. "But he had already turned."

Becky nodded her head and looked down.

The clips then showed the group trying to traverse through the rave to find their friends. Things went wrong for Cody and Becky, and things went wrong for Julian and Jenny. So, Gino and Aldo called in the backup, which shot at the zombies and people, killing Shelby. The Russians ran for their lives as the teens dragged Cody into the inner parts of the amphitheater wall, and the army shot the missile.

"22 years," Spider said, disappointed, with his arms crossed. "And they haven't changed one bit. This is why I don't trust the government."

"We've reached the end," Col. Reynolds suddenly said. "Now tell us why we're all here."

"Right to the point, then," Julie remarked. "All right."

"The organization we're in," Raleigh explained. "We're capable enough to take down the government for everything they did. But... we know from personal experience that revenge is a great driving factor to stop people."

"How often do you guys need to get revenge on someone?" Burt asked.

"You'd be surprised," Carter said with his arms crossed.

"Show 'em," Rigby said, looking at both Raleigh and Frodo.

They got the message. Raleigh took off his gloves, and showed that his left hand was a robotic hand, with the pinky finger missing. The others looked on in surprise and shock as Raleigh detached his hand. Frodo joined in by slipping off his suit jacket to show a short sleeved dress shirt, showing that his right arm was also robotic. He rolled up the sleeve to show that the prosthetic went up to right below his shoulder.

"Don't take _that_ off!" Jessie exclaimed. "I'll throw up."

"So will I," Chuck exclaimed, looking down.

"So will I," Gino added, covering his eyes.

Raleigh and Frodo laughed as they put their prosthetics and jackets back on.

"They would piss their pants if they saw Shiny's eye," Raleigh laughed at Frodo.

"Or Jerome's leg," Frodo remarked, laughing as well.

"Okay," Tom said, looking at the well dressed people. "So what you're saying is, you want us to take down the government for all the stuff they've done with the zombies for you?"

"Not for," Carter corrected him. "We would supply you with the training we take so you can do it _with _us."

"It's because of these guys and those chemicals," Julie declared. "That your guys' friends and family got killed. Either in explosions, gunfire, or getting their brains eaten, it's all because these pricks made that chemical to try to combat the war on marijuana."

That garnered everyone but Col. Reynolds' attention.

"_That's_ why they made that chemical?" Becky asked.

"The chemical has been around since 1969," Aldo announced. "It's been killing people for the last thirty-seven years. You mean to tell us they made it because of a drug that literally everyone does?"

They looked to Col. Reynolds as he was the military expert here.

"That's exactly why they made the Trioxin," Reynolds confirmed. "And things have been in havoc ever since."

"I'm in," Spider declared, and Chuck and Casey nodded their heads in agreement.

"Me, too," Burt said. "I lost good friends because of this chemical."

"So did we," Cody said, as he and Becky nodded in agreement.

"We lost family," Jenny pointed out.

She and Julian looked at each other and nodded their heads in agreement.

"We're in," Julian announced.

"So are we," Aldo announced. "We were only after the Tryoxin for money, and it doesn't look like you guys are skimping on money."

"That we aren't," Raleigh agreed.

The younger Wilsons, Tom, and Doc Mandel looked at each other in thought.

"If you're apprehensive," Raleigh pointed out. "We _do _have a way to take you back to your times. It's your choice."

"Aw, what the hell," Tom shrugged his shoulders. "I wasn't doing anything with my life, anyway."

"I'm in, too," Doc announced. "But I want a nice car."

"That can be arranged," Julie told him.

"But as you were a doctor," Carter said. "And you're not much for running, you'd mostly stay behind to patch up wounds. Carry around a gun for emergencies."

"I like it!" Doc said, raising his glass.

"What about Jessie?" Lucy asked. "He's only twelve."

Jessie looked at her offended that she was speaking for him.

"We have a guy, Jake Sanders," Raleigh said. "It was his choice to join in this life when he was eleven. He never got killed, and managed to save his friends a lot. As long as it's what Jessie wants."

"I'm in!" Jessie announced.

Lucy sighed out.

"Then I'm in, too," she decided.

Raleigh looked towards Col. Reynolds, who was the only one who hadn't agreed yet.

"John?" Raleigh asked. "What's your stance?"

"I'm not helping you," Reynolds declared. "And I'd like a gun right now."

"Why?" Raleigh asked as Aldo stopped Gino from pulling out his gun.

"Because there's nothing left for me," Reynolds announced. "I lost my wife years ago, and because I ignored him, my son died. So I don't see why I should help out anyone anymore. So piss off."

He crossed his arms and looked down. Some of the group were surprised by how angry the man was, but the others could understand why. The man _did_ lose his son, hours ago for him, and was just reminded that it was all because of some idiots with bigger heads than brains.

Raleigh walked over to John and put his hand on the other man's shoulder, garnering the Colonel's attention.

"Come with me," the scarred faced man said. "There's something I think you're gonna want to see."

"No," Reynolds said, looking back down.

Carter walked over, grabbed the older man by his shirt, and pulled him up into a standing position.

"He wasn't asking," Carter said, calmly with a smile on his face.

Carter and Raleigh escorted John out of the room. The other well-dressed people in charge gestured for the others to follow.

"Good," Spider said, putting down the blanket that was around his shoulders. "If they kick his ass, I want to watch."

The group was led into an elaborate laboratory. There were all kinds of mechanisms that they had a hard time understanding, even the people that were from this time period.

"We have _very_ good scientists," Julie explained at the various peoples' surprised expressions.

Raleigh led John to a part of a wall that looked similar to a coroner's office's collection of cadavers. Raleigh pressed a few buttons on a tablet, and two sections extended out, revealing them to be cryogenic pods.

"This is where you guys have been sleeping for the last couple of years," Raleigh said, looking over his shoulder at the others. "And it's where they will continue to sleep until the time comes."

The others crowded around the pods, curiously, with John in front. They were all shocked.

Inside the pods were Curt Reynolds and Julie Walker.

"Curt?" John asked, hopeful.

"But they walked towards the incinerator," Chuck remarked.

"We saw them enter the room," Lucy added.

"True," Frodo said. "But then we showed up, and our tranquilizers worked on them, which was lucky.

"But..." John said in disbelief. "He was bit."

To prove his point, John gestured to the bite mark on his son's right arm.

"True," Rigby agreed. "But when we got the group from Louisville, we also took the canisters of Trioxin."

"We had to be really careful 'cause of how much they had regressed," Julie remarked.

"Why the fuck'd you bring those things after all the trouble they caused?" Spider asked, genuinely confused.

"For them," Carter answered, gesturing towards the sleeping two.

"Our top scientist transformed the gas from them into a liquid form," Raleigh explained. "And he's doing everything he can to see if there's a way we can reverse the effects. Transform them from brain eating zombies, back to humans."

"You think he can do it?" Cody asked.

"Well, he made a van into a time machine," Raleigh said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Plus, we've done a lot by combining science and magic," Julie added. "Just look at this building."

The others nodded at that, before looking at her curiously.

"Magic?" Julien decided to be the one to ask.

"Oh, right," Julie realized. "Didn't mention that part yet. Whoops."

"What magic?" Burt asked. "Card tricks?"

Julie pointed her hand towards a nearby tarp. She lifted her hand, and the tarp raised up into the air, at which everyone was surprised. She moved her hand so it was pointing at Burt, and the tarp flew towards him and covered his head.

"I'd say it's a pretty advanced card trick," Rigby joked.

Burt pulled the tarp off of himself, and looked at the group surprised. John turned towards Raleigh.

"If you think this guy can fix my son," he decided. "I'm in."

"All right," Raleigh said, pulling out his vibrating phone. "Give me a sec, I need to answer this."

Raleigh walked into a corner of the lab out of earshot and answered his phone.

"Yeah, Roxas?" Raleigh asked. "Surprisingly well. The thought of revenge really spurred them on. So, one thing we've learned from your past that's actually accurate."

He listened for a little bit.

"That's good," Raleigh remarked. "It's the only reason Reynolds will help, so it would be bad if we couldn't hold up our end of the bargain. Let's hope Harry doesn't get into an accident during it. I think it'd be hard to explain to Sadie why her baby daddy is suddenly craving brains."

He and his ally chuckled at the bad joke.

"Don't worry," Raleigh continued. "I'm taking care of things down here, and if I need help, I will ask. Don't worry, I will be careful."

He paused. "Why would you say 'No homo'? We're cousins, we're supposed to care about each other. Oh!"

He laughed, now realizing his cousin was joking.

"All right." he continued. "I'll give you an update later on. Bye."

Raleigh hung up his phone, put it in his pocket, and walked towards the others.

"Now that all that's out of the way," he announced. "How 'bout we show you guys to the living quarters?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The actor that actually played Scuz in the first Return of the Living Dead actually played the doctor who got his fingers bit off in part 3, so I decided to have a little fun with that


	3. Settling in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is given the chance to settle down for a bit. Unfortunately, trouble isn't far

"This would be the residential area," Raleigh explained as he led the group of fifteen into the so called residential area.

It had that name for a reason. The room served as a living room for the compound. Large, comfy looking couches, ornate tables that had cases with cupholders in them, a bar to the side, a giant TV that covered a whole wall nearby, along with a counter area underneath. The counter displayed all kinds of video game systems, from Play Stations to X Boxes. There were tables with drawers nearby that housed fancy looking lamps on top. 

"Man, this is a kick ass residential area!" Casey exclaimed as they walked through.

"I'm gonna have fun getting high in this place," Spider said as he regarded the area.

"Don't be a narc and hog all the weed," Cody said.

John looked at the young people like they were idiots and regarded Raleigh.

"Some people, eh?" he asked the younger man.

"We can't really talk," Raleigh admitted, pulling out a pretty big bag of weed out of his jacket.

The younger people raised their eyebrows at that.

"Don't smoke it all at once," Raleigh said, tossing the bag to Spider.

Spider caught the bag and regarded it like it was a gift from god.

"You know," Chuck said. "It just occurred to me that after 20 years, your weed guy might not still be alive."

"You might be right," Spider said before he looked up at Raleigh, grateful. "You are my fucking hero, man."

"We work with idiots," Jenny whispered to Becky, who nodded in agreement.

Aldo and Gino suddenly walked towards Raleigh.

"You were able to help him get what he wanted," Aldo said. "Could you help us get somethings we want?"

"Sure," Raleigh said. "What do you guys want?"

"A case of Cristal," Aldo started. "Each. And a big slide for that pool out back."

"Got it," Raleigh said, typing it onto the notebook on his phone. "Anything else?"

"Pussy," Gino said, nonchalantly.

Everyone, literally everyone, looked at Gino like he was an idiot.

"Really?" Raleigh asked, raising his eyebrow, annoyed, at the Russian.

"Ignore him," Aldo announced. "He fits Miss Carlton's description of 'idiot.'"

Jessie turned away from that show and looked towards the TV.

"That is the biggest television I have ever seen!" he announced.

"Well, kid from the 80's," Julian said, looking towards Jessie. "You didn't really get a chance to see them too big."

"Well," Doc Mandel said. "It shouldn't be too hard to miss cooking shows with that thing!"

The teens and young adults walked over to the TV, along with Doc Mandel. Cody took notice of the video game systems they had there.

"Geez," he said. "You guys really take gaming seriously."

"Well, a lot of our allies are teenagers with special powers," Raleigh explained. "We might have great responsibilities, but they _are_ still teenagers."

"I'm starting to like you guys," Cody said, checking out the trunk full of games.

Cody picked up one, and closed his mouth, holding back a smile. He turned towards the others, garnering their attention as he held up the game.

"Dead Rising," Cody announced, holding up the game.

"We thought zombie games were on par for you guys' lives," Rigby admitted. "Plus, it _is_ kind of addicting, running over zombies all day long with a truck."

"Yeah, I'll give it to you," Julian admitted. "That part is kind of fun."

Julian had been kind of quiet since they left the lab, which was completely understandable. Having had the reality of the last couple of years of his life really threw things off course for him. Now remembering the truth about his uncle, along with what happened to his little brother...

He sighed out, knowing that this wasn't the time and the place. Besides, with these guys' help, he could now have a chance to get back at the people truly responsible for what happened to his friends and family.

Julian looked up at Cody, who was doing his best to explain to the people not of this decade, including John Reynolds, how the TV and gaming consoles connected to each other and worked. He had known his friend long enough to know that while Cody was acting like he was okay, the young man was really just throwing up a shield at the moment because he knew this wasn't the right time to really express his thoughts. He knew that if he was gonna work with these people in the future, he had to build up a good companionship with them first. The time for facing reality was later.

Sharing a look with Becky, Julian could tell she thought the same exact thing.

"All right," Julie announced, garnering a lot of people's attentions. "I guess we should now show you the bedrooms."

It was just then that everyone noticed how long the events of the day so far had actually been, and how late it was getting.

"They're just down there," Julie said, gesturing to a double wide hallway with lots of doors on either side. "They've been equipped to each of your individual likings, but if you want something changed, just talk to us."

The others nodded their heads along and walked down the hallway, each of them going to their own separate rooms.

Well, each of them except for Julian and Jenny.

"We figured you two wouldn't want to be separated," Carter explained, gesturing to a specific door. "So we made accommodations for that."

"Thank you," Jenny said, at which Julian nodded in agreement.

Carter walked away and Julian and Jenny entered their room, honestly a little surprised. Practically everything from their dorm rooms and actual homes was in the room that they shared. The room was even decked with their own bathroom, with the right soaps and pleasantries they used. The room also had a pretty large window near the bed, giving them a great view of some of the area outside the base, including the pool.

"Wow," Jenny said, amazed. "These guys really go all out."

"Well," Julian shrugged his shoulders. "The level of magic they must have along with technology must help things."

Julian sat down on the double wide bed and sighed out. Jenny walked over to face him.

"So, are we gonna talk about it?" she asked.

"It's that obvious, huh?" he asked, looking up at her.

The door suddenly knocked, garnering both of their attentions. It then opened, revealing Cody and Becky on the other side.

"Hey," Cody said, deciding to start slow.

"They did really well with these rooms," Becky said, also trying to be slow with it. "Even gave me a high quality glasses cleaning case."

Julian and Jenny nodded, but already knew what they were there for.

"It's not settling well with you guys, either?" Julian asked. "The full scale of what we went through."

"Hell, no," Cody admitted, now sounding as uneasy to be expected. "The outbreak we survived was actually the second one we survived?"

"Zeke," Becky started, crossing her arms as she uneasily talked. "Mimi. Katie. Carlos. Darren... Jake."

Julian closed his eyes and looked down in sadness as she mentioned his lost brother.

"We watched Carlos die, man," Cody added, also crossing his arms. "He was right, we should have just left that fool and gone home."

"It's all my fault," Julian declared. "I was the one who said we had to go in there and get Zeke. I'm the reason that all happened."

"Hey," Becky said. "It might have been your idea, but we're the ones that agreed with you. We're the ones that geared up with you to invade Hybra. So, it was kind of all our faults."

"And, not to speak ill of the dead," Cody added. "Kind of Carlos' for going all Dirty Harry with that revolver."

They shared a small chuckle at that.

"You know," Julian said. "I never gave these guys a second thought, because I thought they just transferred to different schools or something. But now that I know the truth... I miss them. So much."

"Me, too," Cody said.

"Me, too," Becky said.

They were all silent for a second.

"You know," Cody said. "I've got an idea."

Cody led them into the bar in the residential area, where they found the four from the Louisville outbreak, along with John Reynolds.

"Can't stop thinking about the people you lost, too?" Chuck asked as the four of them walked towards.

"Yep," Becky answered as they nodded their heads.

"Hey, Burt," Chuck said, looking behind the counter at Burt Wilson preparing drinks. "We're gonna need four more."

"You got it, Chuck," Burt said.

"As stupid as he is at problem solving," Spider started. "Turns out Mr. Wilson here is very good at preparing drinks."

"I'm in my late 40's," Burt said, looking towards them.

Spider and Casey laughed at that.

"_Really_ late 40's," Burt settled on. "So I needed a lot of practice for at the end of a long work day."

"I can understand that," John said. "I mean, I had to deal with the 245-Trioxin on a daily basis, so you can imagine how stressed I usually was by the end of the day."

"Too bad you realize your mistakes too late, eh?" Becky asked.

"I wish I could be mad at you," John said. "But I can't be since you're right."

Becky smirked a knowing smile as she turned towards Burt, who was placing drinks on the table. Each person grabbed a glass.

"To Frank and Ernie," Burt started, raising his glass.

"To Tina and Freddie," Spider added, raising his glass.

"To Suicide and Scuz," Casey added, raising her glass.

"To Trash," Chuck added, raising his glass.

"To the good doctors I knew," John added, raising his glass.

"To Jeremy, Skeet, and Brett," Jenny added, raising her glass.

"To Shelby, Mimi, and Darren," Cody added, raising his glass.

"To Artie, Katie, and Zeke," Becky added, raising her glass.

"No, fuck that guy," Spider corrected her.

"Yeah," Becky agreed. "Sorry."

Julian slowly raised his glass.

"To Carlos, the stoners... and Jake," he finally added, raising his glass.

They all clinked their glasses together and took a drink.

"Not bad," Spider said, regarding the drink, then Burt. "Do more stuff like this, and I might start to let Louisville go."

"You'll kind of have to," Burt pointed out. "If we're gonna be working together."

"You can't hate people forever," John agreed. "Trust me, I've tried."

They all chuckled at that.

"So," Julian said, turning towards Spider. "I've gotta ask. What's with the..."

"The hair?" Spider finished for him.

"Yeah," Julian said.

"Tried to make a bit of a statement," Spider explained, sipping his drink. "Of course, now, I don't see how much more of a statement we can make, since we're trying to take down the government."

"It might not be the whole government," Jenny pointed out. "As far as we know, it was only the army that did that crap with the barrels, right?"

She looked towards John.

"As far as I know," John started. "None of the presidents were aware of the effects of the Trioxin. They knew it existed and that it failed, but never what else we were doing with it. The White House might have known, but it wasn't exactly something they felt like sharing with the president. Now that they know the Trioxin is still around, and the T-5, who knows what they'll do?"

"I guess that's what we're for," Cody said. "They want us to be the ones to take out the zombies the army makes."

"Now we're starting to sound like the Leon Kennedy's of this world," Julian remarked.

Chuck, Casey, Spider, Burt, and John looked confused at that.

"We'll explain later," Becky promised.

After drinking their glasses, and sharing a few stories and laughs with each other, the nine decided it was time to head off to bed.

Unfortunately, Julian's sleep was plagued with nightmares where he saw his friends and family, including the new friends he just made, getting eaten by all kinds of zombies. Both the T-5 ones they had already encountered, and the nasty experiments they had seen in the videos Raleigh had showed them. In the end, he was glad when Cody woke he and Jenny up, even though it was around 4 in the morning, according to his clock.

"Raleigh said there's something we gotta see," Cody explained.

So, the two of them pulled jackets on over their pajamas and followed Cody to the meeting room, where they had met everyone else. Becky was waiting there with the Russians, Chuck and Casey, John, Tom, Jessie and Lucy, and Burt. All of them were still in pajamas, making it clear they were all dragged out of bed for this. Rigby, Frodo, Raleigh, and Julie stood near the technology at the front, all wearing slightly more casual clothes than the business suits they were wearing.

"Where are Carter and Spider?" Julian asked.

Carter then walked in through another door, dragging a woozy looking Spider by the arm.

"I found him in a closet," Carter explained as he sat Spider down next to Becky. "He fell asleep hot-boxing it."

The teens and young adults chuckled at that while Spider woke up.

"What the fuck is going on?" he asked, nonchalantly.

"This is what the fuck is going on, Raleigh said, turning towards the TV.

An image of a town showed up.

"Elswood, Alabama," Raleigh explained. "A small town with a population of only ten or twenty thousand, give or take."

"What's that got to do with us?" Aldo asked. "We're in Florida."

"We've been keeping tabs on the shit the army's been up to zombie wise," Raleigh explained. "They had a lab there to continue testing on the Tryoxin-5 chemical. Unfortunately, about six hours ago..."

He then showed them clips of people going through the same seizure process that they had witnessed during the rave. Then zombies biting people in their heads, and bitten people becoming more zombies.

"Somehow the chemical got in the town's water supply," Raleigh explained. "People started turning within hours."

"Jesus," Spider said, now wide awake.

"It's just like we saw at the rave," Jenny said.

"Wouldn't this be on the news?" Tom asked. "I mean, a city of people turning into zombies, that has to be very newsworthy."

"We thought the same thing," Julie agreed. "Until we hacked into their database even further."

"They're keeping things quiet," Raleigh explained, showing the military roadblocks. "No one get's in or out. Until they finish getting all of their equipment out, they can't risk anyone getting out and telling the press about all of this."

"And when they do get all their equipment out?" Becky asked.

"The city and everyone in it will be completely sanitized," Frodo answered, his arms crossed.

"No," Cody said. "No way they can get away with that. It'd be all over the damn news!"

"You need to learn a few things, young man," John said. "Cover up."

"It's already been prepared," Raleigh said, showing them pictures of the nuclear power plant within Elswood. "Meltdown at the nuclear power plant."

"A tragic accident," Lucy said. "That way no one goes sniffing around the city."

"Specifically why they chose that city in the first place," Julie said, venom on her tongue. "These people make me sick."

"So what do we do?" Julian asked.

Raleigh turned towards them.

"Honestly," Raleigh started. "I was planning on having you all start your training today. But I guess we're gonna have to postpone that for some of you."

"How do you wanna do this?" Aldo asked.

"We're game," Cody declared.

Everyone either nodded their heads in agreement, or just simply said, "Yeah."

"Carter and I lead a team in by helicopter," Raleigh started explaining the plan. "We set up a safe house for us to gather survivors in. We alternate, some of us gathering survivors, others of us figuring out how this all started. We trade places every once in a while. Some people will stay back to monitor our progress through the equipment we have here. Once we gather as many survivors as we can, we have our operatives arrive with the more high tech aerial transport so we can get everyone out of there safely. But we also have to bring a lot of supplies. Like I said, the Tryoxin is in the water, so we can't drink any of it while there. And we have to be especially careful. There are still military units patrolling around town, trying to keep this contained. Not to mention people who might go crazy due to the whole zombie outbreak thing. As long as we tread as carefully as possible, we should make it."

"So how do we decide who goes?" Becky asked.

"Actually," Raleigh said, looking over to her. "Like it or not, you, Cody, and Julian have the most experience in dealing with T-5 zombies."

"What about us?" Gino asked, offended.

"You guys are good shots," Raleigh explained. "I'd rather have you guys here helping watch over the place. Plus, if the army finds out that Russians are involved in this, who knows what they might do."

"True," Gino admitted.

"Do not worry, Comrade Bryant," Aldo said, his accent a bit heavier. "We will do our best to keep things running smoothly."

"Good," Raleigh said.

"Hold on," Julian interjected. "I'm not sure I'm ready to just willingly throw myself back into the frontal lines of another zombie outbreak."

"I'm sorry, Julian," Raleigh said, genuinely sounding it. "I really wish that none of you had to go through this. This life isn't for everyone. But right now, the people in the town need help. And like it or not, you and your friends are the best chance they have right now."

"He's right, Jules," Cody said, looking at Julian. "We have taken out a bunch of zombies ourselves. Plus, we are starting to remember all that stuff we did back at Hybra. As much as I'd like to stay low right now, you can't deny it'd feel good to vent our frustrations by just going out and killing more zombies."

"He's got a point," Becky agreed.

Julian looked at his friends, then looked down, knowing they were right.

"Okay," he said, looking back up at them. "Okay."

Jenny put her hand on his shoulder, and he looked over at her.

"Promise me you'll be safe," she told him.

Julian put his hand on top of hers.

"I promise," he told her.

"Hate to say it," Carter said. "But he probably won't be able to keep that promise for long."

"So who else is going?" Becky asked. "I mean, we are capable like you said, but I don't think five of us will be enough."

"Don't worry," Carter said. "I've got the perfect person in mind."

He put his hand on Spider's shoulder, drawing the attention of the young man, who was starting to roll a new blunt. Spider looked up, curious, to see the knowing face of Carter. He quickly figure dout what Carter was insinuating.

"Aw, fuck."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know people might not be that interested in this, but I am, so don't care


	4. Reunions with the Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The small team stocks up and prepares for travel. However, the trip turns rough right before they reach their destination

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am aware this is now starting to sound like one of the Dead Risings. But hey, not all fanfiction is supposed to be clever

Raleigh and Carter led the four on the team to the equipment room, which was not far from the lab. Once there, they explained to the less experienced how to use each and every mechanism they would need.

"These," Raleigh explained, holding up what looked like a smartphone. "Are more advanced than your ordinary smartphone. There's a feature on the home menu that can turn on any car, even if you don't have the keys. It'll certainly help when we need rides around the city."

Julian, Cody, Becky, and Spider nodded along as they explained. Spider especially, as he had disappeared about eight years before the smartphone was even invented.

"There's also a feature that can hack into any computer," Raleigh continued, showing them where it is. "And open any electric door. That way you don't have to worry about finding keycards."

"Or, in your case," Carter said, looking at Cody. "Using a CD to hack into advanced databases."

Cody chuckled, remembering his way of getting the information they had needed to get into Necropolis.

"I still question how that worked," Carter admitted.

"Years of practice," Cody told him with a smile on his face as his friends laughed.

"Anyway," Raleigh said, holding up a new small device. "Earpieces. These things are like little walkie talkies. You put them in your ear, and we'll be able to communicate from anywhere across town. As long as it's on the right frequency, and is on."

He gave each of the trainees earpieces, and they put them into their ears and pressed blue buttons. As if on cue, Carter pressed his own earpiece button.

"Testing," he said, which thee four heard in their ears as well as in front of them. "Testing. Two, three, four."

"Whoa," Spider said, amazed. "That actually worked."

The others nodded along, amazement on their faces.

"Boner," Becky suddenly said, a wide smile on her face.

The others laughed, while Raleigh looked at them annoyed.

"Tits," Julian added, a smile on his face.

"Cocks," Spider added, laughing.

"Pussy!" Carter added, not being able to resist the fun.

Everyone burst out laughing, as it was especially funny to see one of the guys in charge willing to mess around with them. That is, until the five of them saw the annoyed look Raleigh was shooting at them.

"Sorry," Becky said, embarrassed.

"Give someone a communicator," Raleigh muttered, grabbing the next piece of equipment. "There's gonna be one moment where someone does that."

He then held up the next piece of equipment, which looked like a stun gun.

"These are a higher frequency than usual stun guns," Raleigh explained. "They can do enough to kill a 245 zombie, but we won't be encountering those. Still, it wouldn't hurt to have backups."

"Very true," Spider agreed, taking a stun gun. "We could have used these back in Louisville."

Raleigh nodded, and picked up two briefcases, handing them to Julian and Cody.

"What are these?" Cody asked.

"Your armor," Raleigh answered.

Confused, Cody and Julian opened the briefcases, only to find normal clothing. In Julians was his blue and white motorcycle jacket, and in Cody's was a long sleeved blue shirt with a vest with lots of pockets. It was then that they remembered these clothes.

"You guys wore these at Necropolis," Becky said for them.

"We figured you would like to run around the town wearing something familiar to you," Carter explained. "So we amped up your clothes."

"Amped up how?" Julian asked, pulling out his jacket.

"Reach into the pockets," Carter told him.

Julian shrugged his shoulder and put his right hand in one of the pockets. He was surprised to find more room in there than he remembered, so he stuck his hand in further. He continued to reach in, until his entire hand and forearm was now inside a pocket that could usually barely fit his hand.

"What the hell?" Julian asked as his friends shared equal amazement.

"In our line of profession," Raleigh explained, reaching into his own small jacket pocket. "We believe in having _very _deep pockets."

He pulled a handgun out of his pocket to emphasize his point.

"And that's not all," Raleigh said.

He pointed his handgun at the jacket, and fired a shot at it.

"Hey!" Julian exclaimed, angrily.

That is, he was angry, until he saw that the bullet simply deflected off of the jacket and onto the floor, slightly bent.

"Specific material," Carter explained at their amazed expressions. "Can block gunshots, stabs, and zombie bites."

"That'll come in handy," Becky commented, smile on her face.

"We have some for you two, as well," Raleigh said, before looking at Spider. "Particularly ones with sleeves."

"Good call," Spider admitted, looking down at one of his bare arms.

"Now onto the good stuff," Raleigh said, turning away from the table.

He led them to another door, which, when opened, revealed a dark room.

"Uh," Cody said as they walked inside. "Where are the lights?"

"Right here," Raleigh answered.

They could slightly see him as he pulled a lever. Lights came on one by one, showing off more of the room, slowly amazing the trainees.

There were rows upon rows upon rows filled with any kind of gun available. Shotguns on one side, assault rifles on another. Submachine guns hung by their straps on wall rings. Rocket launchers were littered here and there next to the crates filled with smaller handguns. And there wasn't one of each gun. Possibly dozens of the same kinds of guns were set up on the walls and on the tables.

"Holy sweet Jesus!" Julian exclaimed.

"Where the hell did you guys get this many guns?" Spider asked.

"We just linked it to our armory back home," Carter explained.

Raleigh led the trainees to a table with pre prepared belts that would hold the guns and ammo carried. The belts were also equipped with knife sheaths for just in case scenarios. Four were already prepared. He gave one with a Taurus revolver to Spider, one with a Beretta 92F to Julian, one with a Glock 22 to Cody, and one with a Colt M1911 to Becky.

"Those are just your sidearms," Raleigh said. "We'll slowly ease you into the heavier stuff while we're in Elswood."

"That's fine and all," Spider said. "But I've never fired a gun before."

The other five looked at him, surprised.

"Really?" Carter asked.

"Don't get me wrong," Spider said. "I've had to do plenty of other gangster like stuff. Just never a gun."

"Neither did we," Julian admitted. "Not before Necropolis."

"It's pretty easy," Becky agreed. "We'll show you when we get to Elswood."

"Thanks," Spider said, nodding his head.

"But remember," Raleigh said. "We won't have all the ammo here with us. So, while torso shots can work, aim for the head."

The trainees nodded their heads, particularly Julian, Becky, and Cody, who were the ones with the history of shooting the zombies in the torso.

"Alright," Raleigh said while Carter started stuffing guns and ammo magazines into some duffel bags. "Let's get ready."

* * *

The six sat around the hanger like section of the helicopter as it flew through Alabama. They had employed a local pilot to fly them the rest of the way after they had transported themselves to another town close enough to Elswood.

"Pilot says we'll arrive at our planned destination in just a few minute," Raleigh told the others as he sat in his seat.

"Where are we gonna land?" Becky asked.

"A three story apartment complex," Carter explained, showing her an image on his phone. "Helicopter pad on top, and a tough enough fence around the building. Perfect way for us to get in, infiltrate the town, and get everyone out."

Becky nodded her head, impressed.

Everyone had prepared in their own ways before heading out. Carter and Raleigh had changed into black leather outfits with unique designs on the arms and legs, around the body and belt, and their own custom sigils on their chests. Raleigh's was a four fingered hand, no doubt for his prosthetic, and Carter's was a bird that looked like a falcon.

The others were in more conspicuous like clothes.

Julian wore the red and grey baseball shirt he wore at the Rave under his motorcycle jacket. He wore casual jeans and sneakers, perfect for running. He wore the belt carrying his weapons around his waist, his gun and knife at the ready.

Cody wore his blue shirt and vest on top of some darker pants and boots. His belt was around his waist, also keeping his gun and knife ready.

Becky wore a brown jacket made out of the same material as the boys clothes, perfect for deflecting gunshots zombie bites. Underneath, she wore an old light blue shirt and some camouflage pants with some leather boots. Her glasses were freshly cleaned, and her hair was in its usual pigtails. Her belt was around her waist, keeping her gun and knife ready.

Spider wore a black leather jacket made out of a the same specific material over a red tank top shirt. He wore his camouflage pants along with some new, sturdy boots. His Rick James hair was tied back, so that part of it around his head was now a curly mess, worse than Carter's, and the longer bits were pulled into a ponytail. His belt was around his waist, keeping his gun and knife ready.

They all clutched duffel bags next to each other. The bags carried extra equipment. Flashlights, batteries, their stun guns, even grappling cables and ropes for just in case solutions, like what had happened to Cody and Julian at Necropolis. Carter and Raleigh each carried an extra bag filled with guns and ammo that they would need during this little "excursion." They even had crates of bottled water and canned foods in the back.

"Whatever food we find, make sure to have me scan it first," Raleigh explained one last time. "We don't want to take any chances while we're in town."

"How will we know where to start the investigation?" Julian decided to ask the pertinent question.

"The town's water foundation," Carter explained, showing them a picture on his phone once again. "Like we said, the Tryoxin is in the water itself, so anyone who drank it became a zombie. That should be a good first place to start."

The trainees took that in, nodding their heads in understanding.

"Hey!" The female pilot called from the front of the helicopter. "We've entered the town you were talking about. Don't know why you wanted a ride into a quiet town like this, but it looks like there's something going on."

Julian and Becky followed Raleigh to the front part where they saw they had passed over an entrance to the city through a highway. They saw that there was a large military roadblock doing its job of keeping people in and out.

"They won't notice us, will they?" Becky asked.

"They shouldn't," Raleigh said. "They have a lot of helicopters of this model going in and out of the city, transporting equipment."

"They shouldn't bat an eye towards us," Carter added. "If we're lucky."

"Which we usually aren't," Spider pointed out.

"Sit back and strap in," the pilot told them. "We'll be reaching the apartment complex in a little bit."

The three complied and sat back in their seats, strapping themselves in.

"Does she know?" Cody asked.

"She knows something is going on," Raleigh answered. "But we paid her extra so she wouldn't ask as many questions about it."

Cody nodded his head in understanding.

All of a sudden, the helicopter shook violently and started going a bit faster. Warning lights and sirens blared.

"What the fuck!?" Spider asked, voicing everyone's fear.

"Something hit us!" The pilot announced. "We're going down fast!"

"Hold on to something!" Raleigh yelled.

The others complied and reached onto the straps on the walls. They held on as they braced for impact.

* * *

"Julian! Julian!"

Julian slowly stirred awake at the sounds of his friends shouting his name. The helicopter crashing had caused such a bad impact that it had knocked the people inside unconscious for a little while. Julian looked through the spots in his eyes to see Becky and Spider leaning down over his head. Cody stood next, his Glock in his hands. He was about to ask what was going on, when a familiar roar screamed out, making his eyes go wide, and his blood run cold.

"Brains!"

Julian sat up as quickly as he could. Just in time, as grey hands broke through the remains of the side window and grabbed at where he just was.

"What the hell?" Julian asked, freaking out as he stood up next to his friends.

It was then that he saw his friends hadn't survived the impact unscratched. Spider had a bruise on his right cheek, one of Becky's glasses lenses was cracked, and Cody's ear was bleeding. Julian grabbed his own cheek to feel it wet, as a cut had opened, pooling blood.

"What happened?" Julian asked.

A gunshot rang out, knocking back one of the zombies. It was then that Raleigh stood up with Carter. Raleigh held his custom made handgun in his hands, which had a laser point sight added on it. And Carter held an Uzi 9mm outfitted with a silencer.

"The military must have known this wasn't one of their helicopters," Raleigh guessed. "They shot us out of the sky."

"How could they have known?" Cody asked.

"Maybe they recognized the licensing number and knew it wasn't one of theirs," Carter suggested.

Unbeknownst to all of them, the words "Get Rich Fast" were printed in large letters on a part of the helicopter they couldn't see while they were packing it up.

"What do we do now?" Becky frantically asked.

"We take the equipment we have here," Raleigh explained, tucking one of the bags filled with guns around his shoulder. "The plan hasn't changed. We'll have to come back for the food and supplies after we set up shop at the hotel and get a vehicle."

"What about the pilot?" Spider asked.

He and Julian walked into the pilots section before Raleigh could stop them. There, they found the headless body of the pilot covered in blood. The crashed open window revealed the zombie that had her head, his mouth buried deep into her skull.

"Pilot's dead," Carter told the shocked two, even though they could clearly see it. "We gotta move."

The two joined their friends as they followed Raleigh and Carter to the other side of the helicopter. Raleigh used his prosthetic hand to push the back entrance open, with a surprising amount of force. The power of the push caused it to fall to the ground with a loud "THUD."

"That probably didn't help things," Raleigh commented, looking over his shoulder to his friends.

"Nope," Carter agreed. "Let's move."

The six of them filed out one by one, each baring witness to the horrors in the town.

They had crashed in a residential area, right in the middle of a cul-de-sac. There weren't a lot of zombies, but the few that there were were slowly making their way towards the crashed helicopter.

Raleigh pointed his handgun and fired at an approaching zombie, hitting it in the head. When one got close, Carter took it out with a shot from his Uzi.

Knowing that this was the time to act, the three who had slight firearm training took advantage of what little they could remember. Becky, Cody, and Julian joined in shooting zombies that came close to them, aiming for the head.

Unfortunately, Spider was still new to shooting, and ended up shooting the zombie he was trying to shoot right in the stomach. Becky finished it off by shooting it in the head.

"Hold it up to your eyes!" Becky quickly tried explaining to the punk.

"Keep the sights in the front and the sights in the back in line while you aim!" Julian added as he shot another zombie.

"Breathe out as you squeeze the trigger!" Cody finished firing another shot into the forehead of a zombie that got too close.

Spider took all of their advice and adjusted the gun in his hands. He breathed out as he squeezed the trigger, shooting a zombie that got close to him right in the head.

In very little time, all of the zombies were dead, including the one that had killed the pilot. Julian had done it entirely out of spite, though, since the zombie wasn't even bothering them.

"Alright," Julian said, turning towards his friends. "What now?"

"We'll have to find a car fast," Raleigh said, reloading his handgun. "We don't exactly have a lot of options considering how far the complex is from here."

"What about tbe police?" Cody asked. "Wouldn't they be on the front lines for dealing with this situation?"

"Remember," Carter pointed out. "People started turning on their own. Everyone from police to school teachers became zombies."

"Let's not think about how many people are now dead," Becky decided. "It'll only bum us out even more."

The others nodded in agreement.

All of a sudden, the sound of Axel F started playing, and Raleigh pulled out his phone, revealing that it was the one playing. He answered, and saw the image of Julie and Frodo on the screen.

"Talk to me," Raleigh said.

"We've launched out the drones," Julie explained. "The cameras are outfitted, we're getting images for the town on the monitors right now."

"Drones?" Spider asked.

"Little flying cameras," Carter explained. "We're gonna use them to figure out where to find people who need help."

The trainees nodded in understanding.

"That's smart," Cody said.

"We're getting images for the apartment complex you'll hold up in," Frodo said from the phone. "It's surrounded by zombies, but the fences seem to be holding up. The only problem you should have is getting inside and clearing it out."

"Luckily we're very good at taking these things out," Julian commented.

"There's something else, though," Frodo said. "It was definitely an attack on you that took out the helicopter. They should be sending troops after..."

He was cut off when rapid gunfire appeared out of nowhere. The ground had to start running as bullets hit the ground near them. One hit Raleigh in the shoulder as he, Julian, and Spider hid behind a pickup truck.

"Damn!" Raleigh exclaimed over the gunfire, clutching his shoulder with the bullet in it.

"What the hell is going on?" Becky screamed as she, Cody, and Carter hid behind a minivan.

"Like Frodo said," Carter yelled over the gunfire hitting the two vehicles. "They sent troops after us!"

Cody looked to the side of the car to see a broken side view mirror on the ground. The mirror gave him a good view at the enemies they were now facing. People wearing military like black camouflage clothing were walking towards them. They had on helmets and goggles, so he couldn't see their facial expressions. They held various rifles that they fired towards the vehicles as they walked forwards.

"I count six of them," Spider remarked as he quickly ducked from his position that let him see out the window.

More gunfire had erupted, turning the window into shards of broken glass on the ground.

"What to we do?" Julian asked, frightened.

"We're gonna have to fight back," Raleigh answered holding up his gun.

Julian and Spider quickly realized what he meant.

"You mean kill them?" Becky asked as Carter held up his Uzi.

"When they don't give you another choice," Carter said on one knee, ready to pop up and fire back. "You have to resort to it."

The military soldiers had just stopped firing and were starting to walk closer to the cars. Carter then popped up and fired his Uzi, hitting two of them in the chest with his shots, killing them. The soldiers then held up their rifles and resumed firing just as Carter ducked back under the minivan.

Julian bit his lip, knowing there was no other way around it. He inched down the side of the car and turned his head around the side. The soldiers were more interested in shooting at the car the others were behind after Carter had killed their associates. Julian gulped and aimed his Beretta. He squeezed the trigger and hit a soldier in the stomach. Unfortunately, that didn't kill him, and made the soldier and one of his comrades start shooting at the truck.

Once the soldiers shooting the minivan stopped to reload, Becky popped up and shot the soldier Julian had shot right in the head, and then one walking towards the minivan right in the soldier, emptying her clip. Cody helped her by shooting the guy with his remaining bullets, killing him before they ducked down again.

With one of the soldiers dead, and the other one focused entirely where Julian was, Spider popped up and shot the soldier right in the head through his helmet. He gasped as the man fell to the ground, dead.

Meanwhile, Becky, Cody, and Carter were reloading their guns.

"Colt only holds seven bullets," Carter admitted, embarrassed, to Becky. "Sorry."

The sound of a gun hammer clicking drew their attentions. The last soldier was standing over them, his rifle aimed right at Carter. Before they could do anything, though, the sound of three gunshots sounded off, and blood spewed out from the man's chest. The man fell to the ground, dead, and they saw Spider lowering his revolver.

Carter stood up, walked over to Spider and patted him on the shoulder.

"Thanks," he told the punk.

"Brothers gotta have each other's backs," Spider said, proudly, in response.

"Guys!" Julian called out, getting his friends' attentions. "He's hit!"

It was true. Raleigh had taken off the jacket like part of his outfit, revealing the plain grey t shirt underneath. The bullet hole in his shoulder was still bleeding, causing blood to spill onto his hand covering it, and onto his shirt.

"I'm on it," Carter said, rushing to action.

He kneeled down on one knee and got to work. First, he pulled a little wand looking rod out of his bag and put it to Raleigh's wound. Raleigh winced as the bullet flew out, into the little magnet. Carter then pulled out a vial which he opened, and poured some of its contents onto a rag.

"What is that?" Spider asked.

"Pegasus spit," Carter answered, putting the rag onto Raleigh's wound.

"Ew!" Cody exclaimed as he and the other trainees exclaimed in disgust.

Carter just ignored them as he took the rag off of Raleigh's shoulder. They could see the wound slowly closing as it absorbed the liquid.

"Gross," Carter admitted, putting away the supplies. "But it works medical wonders."

"And now I want a pet pegasus," Becky said, eyes wide.

Raleigh wiped the blood from his shoulder and picked his back back up after he stuffed the jacket inside.

"Well, I guess these cars won't work," he tried calmly moving on.

"You think?" Julian sarcastically asked, a little shaken up by the last few minutes.

"It wouldn't work, anyway," Frodo's voice announced from Raleigh's somehow still on phone. "More soldiers are on their way to your position with armored vehicles. They'll be there in just under a few minutes."

Cody regarded that and walked over to one of the fallen soldiers. He kneeled down and picked up the M16 assault rifle, along with some magazines from his pockets.

"What are you doing?" Raleigh asked.

"It's not like he's using these anymore," Cody said, cocking the rifle.

"He's got a point," Julian admitted.

So, he, Becky, Spider, and Raleigh picked up some extra guns as well. Raleigh grabbed two M4 assault rifles. Becky grabbed a g36 rifle. Spider grabbed an M4 with a handle and a scope. Julian grabbed an MP5K machine gun, and a shotgun one of the soldiers had hanging from his back. He strapped the shotgun onto one of the parts of his bag and stuffed ammo in his pockets.

"What now?" Becky asked as Julian joined them in a semi-circle as they all held the guns in their hands.

"Like Frodo said," Raleigh said. "They'll be coming after us from down the road. We'll have to find a back way out of here."

Something had caught Cody's attention, which gave him a good idea. He walked over to it, and looked up at his allies.

"Or maybe," he announced. "A downwards way out of here."

He looked down, gesturing to the manhole next the storm drain. The others got the idea.

"This is gonna be gross," Spider said. "But it is a good plan."

"Hopefully we don't run into any murderous clowns with red balloons," Becky joked.

Spider looked confused.

"I'll explain later," Julian told him as he walked over to Cody.

Julian used a nearby crowbar to pry open the manhole cover, revealing the ladder that led down. He looked up at his friends.

"Let's move."


	5. Setting Up Shop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group reaches their destination after some difficulty

The sewers were just as gross to be expected. The group walked across a walkway that was right over the river of sewage that smelled like a horrid mixture of what you expect from public toilets.

"This makes me wish more than anything that I didn't have a sense of smell," Becky gagged as they walked along, carrying their supplies.

Due to the heavy smell, most of the group were resting their guns by their straps on their backs as they each held one of their hands up to their noses to plunge out the smell. But to be safe, they carried their handguns in their free hands. Well, everyone except Raleigh and Carter. Raleigh carried one of his rifles in his hands as he walked along, and Carter's Uzi was just small enough to only need to actually be held with one hand.

"How are you going through this place so casually?" Spider asked, slightly nasally due to his nostrils being covered.

"I was a captive prisoner slash torture victim for five years," Raleigh explained. "It's why I have the scars and the prosthetic. Part of what they did to me left me with no sense of smell."

"So you can't smell anything?" Julian asked, looking over at his shaggy haired ally.

"Nope," Raleigh said, pretty stone faced.

"Lucky fuck," Cody insulted.

"I don't know if I'd consider it lucky," Raleigh corrected him. "I'm also a little color blind in one eye, and the left side of my tongue doesn't taste anything."

"Okay, we'll get into _that_ later," Becky said, gesturing her gun at Raleigh, apologizing as she aimed it right at him. "I want to know why it somehow smells even worse than it should."

"Well," Carter said. "It may be due to the Tryoxin. Again, it got in the water supply. And well, this qualifies as water."

Julian looked down at the sewage in disgust.

"Didn't touching the Tryoxin turn that Russian dude that met with my uncle?" he asked.

"Yep," Carter answered, looking in disgust around the entire area.

"As if we needed another reason to not let that shit touch us," Spider commented.

They walked down the walkway using the map that Raleigh had on his phone to guide them. After about fifteen minutes of walking while plugging their noses, Raleigh reported that they were pretty close to the apartment complex.

"Can we get out through this ladder?" Cody asked, gesturing to the ladder right next to them.

"We'll have to have the others check topside first," Carter answered.

"Do it," Julian said. "Fast."

Carter managed to sling his Uzi around his forearm and pulled out his phone. Julie showed up on the screen.

"What's up, guys?" she asked.

"We went through the sewers," Carter said, regretting the very action. "We just reached a ladder that should take us out of here. But we need to know if it's safe."

"Where's the manhole cover?" Julie asked.

Raleigh checked on his phone.

"The intersection of Cooper Street and Dryer Avenue," he answered.

They waited for Julie to check.

"There are a few zombies around the area," she told them. "But they aren't near the manhole cover. Try not to be too loud. If they come near, use melee weapons or silenced guns."

"Luckily I've got this," Julian said, replacing his handgun with the crowbar he had grabbed earlier.

"Let me go first," Carter said. "I'm the one with the silenced Uzi."

"I'll be right behind you," Julian assured.

Carter nodded his head and climbed up the ladder. Once he reached the top, he slowly placed his hands on the cover and pushed up, doing his best to not make any sounds. He just as slowly pushed it to the side onto the street and poked his head out. He was in the middle of a suburban street, right before the road went into the downtown section of the city. Like Julie said, the few zombies they could see were pretty far, and would only notice them if they made noise. Carter slowly lifter his Uzi and climbed out of the hole.

After a second of standing there, Julian climbed up and joined him with his crowbar. Unfortunately, one of the zombies looked over towards them, and gestured to her friends.

"Damn," Carter said as the three zombies started shuffling towards the two, saying "Brains."

"Luckily it's not a lot," Julian remarked.

He walked forwards as Carter aimed with his Uzi. Carter shot the female zombie, then a male zombie with long hair, killing them with silenced gunshots. Julian then gripped his crowbar and hit the third zombie with the buzzcut right in the head, knocking it back slightly. But when he saw it was still alive, he gripped his crowbar with both hands, held it over his head, and grunted as he stabbed the end into the zombie's head.

Julian grunted as he pulled the crowbar out while his friends climbed out of the manhole.

"Second outbreak I've been a part of," Spider remarked, watching Julian walk back towards them. "And I can definitely say i prefer these zombies."

"Same," Cody agreed. "It's a lot easier to kill these guys than the 245s."

"We've never encountered a 245," Becky reminded him.

"Still," Cody remarked.

"Can we finish this once we get to the complex?" Raleigh asked. "It's just down this road. Right before officially entering the city."

"He's right," Julian remarked, grabbing his MP5K from around this shoulder. "We can't be out for too long with all the zombies around."

"Okay," Becky said, nodding her head. "Let's go."

They walked down the road until the promised apartment complex came into view. The fence Raleigh and Carter mentioned extended about twenty feet in front of the entrance. But, dozens of zombies blocked the entrance gate that led inside.

"Let's take 'em out," Spider said, raising his rifle.

"Hold it," Carter said, grabbing Spider by the arm. "We don't have too much ammo on us right now, and we're gonna be in town for a couple of days at least. We should be conservative with it."

"Then how do you suggest we take out the zombies?" Julian asked as Spider grumbled as he lowered his rifle.

"Melee weapons," Raleigh answered, pulling his knife out of its sheath and gesturing it towards the group.

"No offense, man," Cody said. "But i don't think these guys will just let us stroll in and stab them all in the head."

"That's why we're gonna be smart about this," Raleigh remarked, putting his knife away. "This building has an underground parking lot we can break into. Once we do, it should be easy to clear out all the zombies inside."

"Okay," Becky said, nodding her head. "Where's the entrance?"

Raleigh studied the picture of the building on his phone.

"This way," Raleigh said, putting his phone away.

Raleigh led the group down a side road, moving as stealthily as they could around the zombies. They successfully made it to the ramp that led down to the entrance of the parking garage. The only problem is that the gate separating them from the garage was closed.

"Hey," Spider started. "Is this a good example of what you were talking about of how we can use that feature on the phone?"

"That's it exactly," Raleigh answered as they walked down the ramp and towards the control panel to the gate.

"I got this," Spider said, slinging his rifle around his shoulder by the strap.

He pulled out the phone they gave him and held it up to the control panel. He tapped the function Raleigh had mentioned with his finger, and it brought up a screen. It asked "What are you trying to break into?" and displayed the options of an electronic door, or a car. He chose electronic door, and the control panel for the gate activated. The gate then slowly opened as the door rose up.

"That was easy," Spider remarked, putting his phone away.

The others agreed with Spider with nods of their heads. He was just pulling his rifle back into his hands from the strap around his soldier, when a familiar call sounded off from the top of the ramp.

"BRAINS!" a female zombie screamed out in a high pitched voice.

Carter quickly shot and killed the zombie with a silenced gunshot from his Uzi, but the damage had already been done. Zombies limped as quickly as they could down the road and started down the ramp.

"Move!" Raleigh exclaimed, firing one of his M4's at the approaching zombies.

The small group crouched down as they fired their guns at the approaching zombies, waiting for the gate to get high enough. Once it reached that point, Becky was the first one to crawl inside and check around with her g36.

"Clear!" she exclaimed, still holding it up to her eye, ready to fire.

The others crawled in after her one by one, while at least one person still held back the zombies by shooting them in their heads. Carter stood on the dangerous side of the gate as Julian crawled underneath, and Julian helped provide cover fire while the others came through. After Carter decided it was time to come in, Raleigh worked the control panel on their side to shut the gate.

They continued to hold back the zombies as the gate slowly closed. Julian even stayed on one knee to provide cover fire in case the zombies tried crawling down as the gate closed even more.

Eventually, the gate got low enough that they knew they didn't need to worry anymore, but then Cody was surprised when an arm flew through and grabbed him by the ankle. He exclaimed in surprise, but then the gate pressed down and cut it off in a bloody mess.

"Jesus Christ," Cody said.

But then the hand tightened its grip on his leg.

"Ah!" Cody exclaimed, raising his leg. "Get it off!"

The others exclaimed and dropped their guns as they went to his aide. Spider and Becky grabbed Cody by his shoulders while Carter and Raleigh grabbed the arm. Julian kicked the arm, and it released his friend. Raleigh then gripped the flailing arm, and exclaimed as he stuffed it in a trash can.

"What is this?" Carter asked. "Bride of Re-Animator?"

"That's a good movie," Becky said, pointing at Carter. "But do you think that'll hold it?"

Raleigh just picked up his discarded M4 and pointed it into the trash can. He fired off three shots, then fired one more before turning away from the can.

"Now i do," Raleigh simply answered.

"We need a vacation," Spider sighed out.

"Join the club," Carter remarked.

"We'll figure that out later," Becky said, picking up her rifle. "Let's clear out this building first."

"She's right," Julian agreed, picking up his machine gun. "We gotta start getting people here ASAP if we wanna get as many out as we can."

"Yeah," Cody agreed, picking up his rifle. "Let's move."

Carter and Spider picked up their guns, and the small group walked through the parking garage. They checked the few vehicles in the area, and only had to take out a few zombies with their knives.

They made their way to the staircase and walked up into the lobby. The concierge sat in the chair at the main desk, but his head was missing.

"I guess he was one of the first to go," Carter remarked.

"This'll come in handy," Becky said, picking up a long stake of wood covered in blood at the sharp end.

"There might still be people alive in here," Julian suggested.

"That's a big might," Raleigh said. "But it's still a thought."

"How do we do this?" Cody asked.

"Three groups," Raleigh said. "One for each floor. No one go anywhere alone. Watch each other's backs, and look where the other person can't see. Carter and Becky, you guys get the first floor. Spider and I will tackle the second floor. Cody and Julian, you guys get the top floor. If anything goes south, hurry back here ASAP."

Everyone nodded at the placement. Carter and Becky went down the hallway that led to the rooms while everyone else walked up the stairs.

The two reached the rooms to see that most of the doors were set up with electronic locks, which they could access perfectly with the mechanics on their phones. Carter had even brought a sharpie marker to mark the doors with during their operation so they would know they had already checked the room.

They managed to get through a few without finding any zombies. Until they reached one specific room.

Becky used the mechanic to unlock the door, and she had started to open it. But then a zombie with a mohawk swung the door open and tackled Becky to the opposite wall, making her drop her rifle. She exclaimed, and Carter tried aiming his Uzi before it was snatched out of his hands by another zombie, who had flat hair.

Carter then backed up as three more zombies, all of them female, came out of the room and charged him, so he pulled out a machete from the sheath hidden on his back.

Becky did her best to hold back the zombie, and had to hold up her knee to hold it back as she moved her right hand to her holster. She managed ro grab her handgun and pointed it right onto the zombie's chin. She pulled the trigger, and blood sprayed out of the top of its head, past the mohawk.

As the zombie fell to the floor dead, Becky quickly shot the zombie that had taken Carter's Uzi, then one of the zombie girls chasing Carter.

Carter, meanwhile, had cut off half of one of the zombie girls' heads, and pulled his machete out of the forehead of the second. He had just raised his machete to kill the third one when Becky had shot it in the back of the head, killing it.

"I had it," Carter said.

"You're welcome," Becky said, picking up his Uzi and holding it out to him.

A male zombie with a buzz cut suddenly grabbed her arm out of nowhere. It leaned down to bite her, but with lightning speed, Carter stabbed it right in the head, killing it. The zombie fell to the floor dead, and Carter put his foot on the zombie's shoulder and pulled out his machete.

"You're welcome," Carter said to the surprised Becky.

Meanwhile, Spider and Raleigh had cleared out half of the rooms on the second floor, and taken out about a dozen zombies with very little difficulty.

Then, they came to a new room. They opened a specific door, but instead of finding zombies inside, they found scared people.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Raleigh said, raising his hands, including the rifle, in peace. The people had started to lift a kitchen knife and baseball bat that they had. "It's okay, we're here to help."

The people, two women and a man, lowered their weapons, but clearly still remained wary.

"My name is Raleigh Bryant," Raleigh introduced himself. He gestured to Spider. "This is my friend, Spider."

"Chill, man," Spider said. "We're not exactly in friend territory yet."

"_Anyway_," Raleigh grit his teeth at Carter, before looking at the people. "We came into the city by helicopter to evacuate people. In less than two days, evacuation choppers will arrive on the roof to escort out everyone from this building."

That calmed them down a bit 

"I'm Trevor," a ginger haired man introduced himself. He gestured to the ginger haired woman. "This is my sister, Jaime, and our friend, Noah."

He gestured to the slightly older black guy.

Another ginger haired guy, this one with shorter hair then stumbled in. He was clutching his neck, which had a bandage over a bleeding wound.

"And this is our brother, Jake,"Jaime said, gesturing to him.

"What's wrong with his neck?" Spider asked, cautious.

"Our neighbor attacked us when we went to check on him," Trevor explained. "Bit Jake right on the neck."

"How long ago was this?" Raleigh asked as Jake shuffled next to his siblings.

The two had already put down the neighbor next door, who had still had blood on his lips, so they knew it couldn't have been too long.

"Twenty," Jake said, gripping his neck. "Maybe thirty minutes ago."

Spider and Raleigh faced each other and solemnly nodded their heads. Raleigh put his left hand and pulled his handgun out of its holster with his right hand.

"I'm sorry," Raleigh said, genuinely sorry as he held his handgun to Jake's head and pulled back the hammer.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The apartment occupants exclaimed.

"What are you..." Jaime started.

But Raleigh cut her off by pulling the trigger and shooting Jake right in the head. Jaime screamed in surprise, sadness, and fear.

"What the fuck, man!" Noah exclaimed, raising his baseball bat.

"There are fucking zombies, _man!_" Spider exclaimed back. "Why do you think people are suddenly eating each others' heads?"

"He's right," Raleigh told them. "And remember the other thing about zombies: just one bite is all it takes to turn you."

The three apartment occupants took in this information with surprised looks on their faces.

"We have associates in the building that are helping clear out the rest of the building," Raleigh further explained. "Once they're done, we're gonna search the town and look for survivors to bring here for the evacuation in a few days."

"We..." Trevor stammered out. "We'd like to join that evacuation."

"Then stay here," Spider told them. "We'll come get you when we've finished clearing out the building."

"And don't drink or touch any of the tap water," Raleigh warned. "I'm a scientist, and I scanned the water. The germ that makes the zombies was leaked into the town's water supply."

The three nodded vigorously at that, while Spider and Raleigh left the room.

Meanwhile, Julian and Cody had gone through most of the top floor, and found already dead zombies.

"What the hell could have killed them all?" Julian asked as they passed a dead zombie with a wound in its forehead.

"Maybe people got smart as the outbreak went on," Cody suggested.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Julian said, crouching down to a new male dead body.

This one wasn't as decomposed as the zombies, looking like it had only been dead after a few ours. But it had multiple knife wounds in the chest.

"I don't think he was a zombie," Julian told Cody.

"Then why would someone kill him?" Cody asked, starting to grow a little afraid.

"Remember something Raleigh said," Julian said. "Some people... might not take the outbreak too well. Some people might snap."

"Oh, shit," Cody said, gripping his rifle a little tighter.

They suddenly heard heavy breathing coming from a nearby open door. The sound of flesh cutting also originated it. Cody and Julian slowly walked towards the door, their guns raised. Julian creaked the door open, and the two both wished they were somewhere else.

A long haired man was on the floor, covered in blood, and crouched over a dead body. Whether it was a dead human or a dead zombie, Julian and Cody couldn't tell. The man was breathing heavily as he skinned the dead body with a hunting knife. And his breathing turned into wicked chuckling as he cut more and more flesh off of the body.

The two gulped as they slowly walked into the room, and aimed their guns at the floor in front of the man. They felt that showing they were ready for action was the best course of action.

One of them then unwittingly stepped on a floorboard that creaked loudly, drawing the man's attention. The man even looked deranged with the wild look in his eyes.

"Stay right there!" Julian tried to sound threatening. But given his voiced was already kind of high pitched, anyway, it didn't have much effect.

The man got up and charged Julian as he tried firing his machine gun, but missed. The man grunted as he pushed Julian into Cody, causing both of them to drop their guns. The man grabbed Julian by the shoulder with his left hand, and raised his hand with the knife. But Julian grabbed the man by the face with his right hand, and grabbed the hand with the knife with his left hand.

Julian grunted as he pushed back the man further into the room. The man fell on the floor, and dragged Julian with him. The two rolled on the floor until the man was on top of Julian. He held his knife with both hands and tried to bring it down onto Julian. But Julian managed to catch the man's arms, and grunted as the man tried overpowering him. Julian wasn't strong enough, and he watched as the knife got closer and closer to his face...

Then three gunshots rang out, spraying blood onto Julian's jacket. The man's face went lifeless, and he fell onto Julian, dead. Julian looked past the dead man, right at Cody. His friend was lowering his handgun and was breathing in and out.

"You guys look like you just finished a nice session of lovemaking," Cody said with a smile on his face.

_Humor_, Julian thought. _A nice way to ignore that you just killed a man._

"Shut up, Cody," Julian laughed as he pushed the dead man off of him.

After they had cleared out all the zombies, the groups reunited at the lobby and traded horror stories. Raleigh and Spider had even gathered Trevor, Jaime, and Noah from their apartment room and brought them there. With the area cleared out of zombies and crazy people, the commandos finally took off their bags and set up shop around the front desk. Raleigh took out his laptop and put it on the desk.

"All right," Raleigh said, turning on his phone to contact the base. He opened the laptop and brought up the same information from before.

"How long do we have?" Becky asked.

"They launch the bomb at midnight on the fourth," Raleigh answered, reading the information from the computer. "It's noon, so two and a half days. Sixty hours."

"That's not a lot of time," Spider remarked.

"Not to get everyone," Carter agreed. "But enough to get as many out as we can."

"Like when we were clearing the building," Raleigh said. "We always have three groups. One for watching things here, one for looking for people, and one for figuring out how this all started."

"Before we do any of that," Julian said, pulling out his crowbar. "Let's take out the zombies at the gate."

He had wiped the blood off of his jacket and put a bandage over the wound on his cheek, so he was a little more presentable to people.

"Yeah," Carter agreed, pulling out his machete.

"I'm in," Becky said, pulling out the stake she had found.

The three went out the front door, and went to work.

"Hey!" Becky called out to the zombies that had started to disperse from the fence. "Over here, skanks!"

"Straight from hell!" Carter called out, getting their attentions.

"Fresh brains!" Julian called as well. "Come and get some, you limp dicks!"

The zombies got close to the gate and pushed at it, but the gate wouldn't budge. So, the three stabbed the zombies in their heads through the fences, killing them one at a time.

While they did that, the other three discussed strategies inside.

"Becky and I can start by investigating the water supply plant," Raleigh suggested. "We might be able to find something."

"And Jules and I can get a truck and bring the supplies from the helicopter back here," Cody suggested. "We pick up people along the way that need help."

"Luckily we've linked the computer here to your guys' comlinks," Rigby said from Raleigh's phone. "That way we can tell you guys where to find survivors while you're out."

"That leaves me and Carter here to make sure things run smoothly," Spider said. "We'll start by disposing of the dead bodies before they stink up the place."

"There's a car lot about ten minutes from your location on foot," Rigby said from the phone. "You can find some vehicles to help from there."

"Sounds like a plan," Cody said.

"What does?" Carter asked as he, Becky, and Julian walked inside.

The three of them explained the plan to the other three. The four that were leaving grabbed their bags of supplies and exited the gates.

"Hopefully we find some good bikes," Cody suggested with a smile on his face.

"Hopefully," Becky agreed.

"That's the secret beauty of zombie outbreaks, guys," Raleigh said with a smile on his face. "You don't have to pay for shit."

"This actually might be kind of fun," Julian said to his friends.

"You said it, Jules," Cody agreed as they continued to walk down the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out it's a lot easier to work on fanfiction when you don't need to constantly use YouTube videos for 50% of references


	6. Searching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teams disperse, one looking for answers, and one looking for people that need help

The group of four walked down the road for just about ten minutes, like Rigby had promised. They found the car lot, where there was a strong gate separating the people from the vehicles. Raleigh opened up the gate, and the three others raised their guns in defense of the possible enemies that could be inside. Raleigh closed the gate behind them as he and the others looked for reliable vehicles.

"Minivan," Becky suggested, pointing at the aforementioned car nearby with her left hand.

"RV," Cody suggested, gesturing to the aforementioned motorized vehicle.

"And it's got a bike attached," Julian said, gesturing to the Ducati on the back.

"Good suggestions," Raleigh remarked. "We are gonna need vehicles equipped to carry lots of people."

"Yeah, you will," Rigby commented into their earpieces. "Downtown, there's a group of people holding back multiple zombies in a sports shop."

Cody and Julian looked at each other and nodded their heads.

"We'll take the RV," Julian said.

All of a sudden, zombies charged into view from behind the minivan. Julian raised his machine gun, but when he pulled the trigger, it clicked empty.

"Damn," Julian said, reaching into his pocket for a fresh magazine as Cody shot the undead with his M16.

"Even with a lot more ammo than handguns," Raleigh explained. "You do still have to pay attention to the ammo in your magazines."

"Thanks for the tip," Julian remarked as he put the fresh magazine in his gun and cocked it.

"We'll hurry to the water supply plant," Becky told Julian and Cody as she checked the magazine on her own rifle. "Watch your backs."

"You, too," Cody told her.

Cody and Julian ran towards the RV and opened the side door on the right, luckily finding no zombies within. Julian slid into the drivers seat and used the mechanism on his phone to activate it. He set the car into drive but kept his foot on the break as he looked up at Cody standing next to him.

"You miss the days the most challenging thing in our lives was trying to figure out how to get money to fix the bikes?" he asked his friend.

"Every second we're here," Cody admitted.

Becky and Raleigh had meanwhile broken into the minivan and activated it, ready to drive it away. Becky sat in the passenger seat while Raleigh sat in the driver's seat, and watched as more zombies suddenly shuffled into view and started moving towards the two active vehicles.

"Guys!" Becky screamed into her earpiece as she saw the zombies start to move to the still open door to the RV.

Cody and Julian both clutched their ears in pain as they turned towards the door, confused. Their eyes widened at the sight of a zombie inside the RV, and another zombie climbing in.

"Live brains!" the female zombie exclaimed.

Julian slammed his foot on the gas and the RV shot forwards, throwing back Cody and the zombies.

"Sorry!" Julian called to his friend.

Julian drove the RV right through the gate, knocking it back as they drove through the street, with the door still open. Becky and Raleigh followed the RV out and continued to follow as they watched the RV, worried for their friends.

And they were right to be worried. Cody had dropped his rifle, and as he was pushing himself up onto his knees, he watched as the female zombie also slowly pulled herself up, between him and his rifle. The male zombie was clutching onto the sides of the door, trying to get inside.

"Brains!" the female zombie exclaimed, lunging at Cody.

Cody lay on his back and pushed the zombie up off of him. The male zombie crawled on the floor and tried grabbing at Cody's leg. Luckily for him, the pants were still strong enough to keep him from getting scratched. And he was especially lucky that the sneakers he was wearing were made from an even stronger material, as the zombie tried biting his foot. Cody then kicked the zombie in the face, knocking it back so it was now still dangling from the door hinges.

Cody pushed the female zombie off of him, which made it fall onto the door hinges with the male zombie, the female zombie right in front of the male one. Cody then picked up his M16 rifle and smacked the female zombie in the head, pushing both zombies off of it. Cody then raised his pant leg and took off his shoe to check just in case, and sighed out, relieved when he saw no wounds.

Becky and Raleigh watched, surprised, as the two zombies went flying out the door and onto the road. The minivan then went into an angle as Raleigh ran over the two zombies with a crunch.

"Cody?" Becky asked into the earpiece. "Jules? Please tell me you guys are all right."

Cody sighed out and put his shoe back on.

"We're all right," Cody admitted. "A little shaken up, but we're all right."

"Sorry," Julian told Cody, looking over his shoulder for a second. Cody just breathed in and out as he finally closed the door to the RV.

"It's all right," he said, trying to catch his breath. "I'm the one who forgot to close the door."

The two cars stopped at a crossroads in the road. The two in the minivan looked into the RV, and vice versa.

"This is where we have to part ways," Raleigh told Cody and Julian by earpiece. "The water supply plant is on the edge of town, and the sports shop is pretty deep into the town."

"We'll give each of you guys directions with help from the drones," Julie told the four of them through their earpieces.

"Good luck," Becky told her friends, a little afraid this would be the last time they see each other.

"You, too," Julian said, with equal fear.

Raleigh and Becky drove down the forward road, as Julian and Cody turned right and drove into the city.

"We'll see her again," Cody told Julian, admittedly sounding like he was trying to convince himself at the same time.

"Yeah," Julian agreed, nodding his head.

With Frodo giving them directions with help from the drones, Julian drove the RV through downtown Elswood. He drove them past burning cars, dead zombies, and groups of zombies swarmed around dead people, eating their brains.

"Jesus," Cody commented as they watched zombies spilling out of the doors of a bar, right onto the ground.

"Jesus ain't got nothing to do with this, man," Julian corrected him, wincing as he felt a head get crushed under a tire.

Julian slowed the RV at an intersection in the road. He and Cody looked through the windows, trying to find the right way to go, and they ended up not needing Frodo anymore. Down the left road, they saw possibly dozens of zombies pushing against the front of the store, trying to push through the reinforcements at the doors and windows. The sounds of people grunting in effort or screaming in pain helped get the point across that that was the store they were looking for.

"It's game time," Julian remarked, ready.

"Try not to weakly throw an empty shotgun at a zombie this time," Cody joked to lighten the situation slightly.

"Shut up," Julian said, turning the RV to go left.

Julian drove the RV through some of the zombies in the back of the crowd, drawing the attention of the undead. Cody opened the window on the right of the door, and started shooting his M16. After he had cleared out enough from in front of the door, Julian popped out with his MP5K in rapid fire mode. With multiple zombies grouped uncomfortably close together, he felt that it was justified in this situation. He shot at zombies on both the right side and left side of the door, using up a lot of his ammo, and killing a lot of zombies with Cody.

Even after they had killed all the zombies, Julian still clutched his machine gun tightly, just in case. He kept his gun up as Cody exited the RV and stood ready with his friend.

"Did we get them all?" Julian asked.

A female zombie then rushed out from in front of the RV.

"Brai..." it called out before Cody cut it off by shooting it in the head.

"Now we did," Cody told him.

The two of them turned towards sports shop. The people inside saw the two through the boards in the windows, and opened the door. A short haired brunette man holding a baseball bat exited and regarded the two.

"Who are you people?" he asked.

"My name is Julian Garrison," Julian introduced himself. "This is my friend Cody Cavanaugh."

"Sup?" Cody asked, raising his left hand.

"We came into town by helicopter to evacuate people from the zombie outbreak," Julian explained. "If you come with us, then you'll be able to evacuate with us from our base in two days."

The man thought about that for a second.

"I'm Randy," he said. "And how do I know you're telling the truth?"

"We have an RV and machine guns," Cody said. "What reason would we have to lie to you?"

"Okay, that's a good point," Randy admitted.

Cody and Julian followed Randy into the sports shop to see five others. A black man, a black woman, a blonde man, and an older white man with black hair. And unfortunately, there was an Indian man clutching his neck, with blood seeping through his fingers.

"One of those things bit Allen there," Randy said. "But nothing in here is good enough to put him down."

He was right. All there were in the shop were usual sports gear. The most effective weapons they could have against the zombies were baseball bats and golf clubs. Effective against zombies, but not good enough to kill a human.

Julian gulped and hung his machine gun by the strap onto his shoulder again. He then pulled out his Beretta and held it up to Allen's head. He pulled back the chamber, and the man looked up, woozily. It was looking into the man's eyes that Julian lost his resolve. He lowered his Beretta and moved the hammer back.

"I can't do it," Julian said.

"He hasn't killed anyone, yet," Cody told the others. "Any actual people. Just zombies."

"Please," Allen said, weakly. "I don't... want to become... one of those things."

"Don't worry, buddy," Cody told Julian, pulling out his Glock. "You don't have to do it, yet."

He then turned towards Allen and pulled back the chamber of his handgun.

"I'm sorry," Cody said, genuinely sorry, as he raised his Glock to the man's head.

"Thank you," Allen said.

That just made Cody feel a bit worse as he shot a hole into the man's head, spraying blood onto the back wall.

"It never get's any easier," Cody admitted to his friend.

"You say that there will be helicopter evacuation?" the black man asked.

"In two days," Julian said once again, putting his Beretta back in its holster. "We came into town by our own helicopter to evacuate as many survivors as we can."

"How many people have you saved?" the black man asked.

"Three," Cody answered.

That made the survivors feel a little uncertain.

"How long have you been in town?" the blonde man asked.

"A couple of hours," Julian answered. "The military shot us out of the sky. They aren't exactly too happy about this outbreak."

"Then how do you know there won't be a similar situation when you try leaving?" the black man asked, growing nervous.

"Our associates inform us that the exit vehicles will be a bit more reinforced," Cody said.

"Why are we talking about all this still in this fucking shop?" the older man asked, reasonably annoyed.

"Yeah, I'm wondering that, too," Julian remarked, holding his MP5K in his hands.

He looked around outside as the survivors introduced themselves. The black man was Stanley, the black woman was Valerie, the blonde man was Jason, and the older man was Bernard. Julian raised his machine gun at the sight of three military soldiers walking down the road, towards the shop.

"We gotta get outta here," Julian announced into the shop.

The survivors exited the shop with Julian and Cody, and watched as zombies leaped out of an alleyway and attacked the military soldiers. The soldiers were swarmed as they shot their rifles feebly, as they were already getting eaten. A couple of more zombies started lumbering down the road towards the RV, and Julian raised his machine gun to provide cover fire. Unfortunately, it clicked empty once again. And even more unfortunately, it was his only other magazine with ammo in it.

"Shit!" Julian exclaimed as he followed the survivors into the RV.

He pulled the door shut behind them as Cody got into the driver's seat. Julian went into his bag and replaced his MP5K with his Mossberg shotgun that didn't have a stock. He slid two shells into the gun, adding onto the ammo it already had, and pumped it, ready.

* * *

Raleigh drove the RV down the road with help of Rigby giving him directions by drone. Becky sat in the passengers seat, fiddling with her rifle to keep herself occupied. He had to remind her to put the safety on, which she did after pointing the gun at him a couple of times.

"Do you have any family?" Raleigh asked, trying to break the tension. "Parents, siblings, anyone that'd be worried about you?"

"Well," Becky sighed out. "I kind of haven't written to them in a while. Not since moving to the college with the boys. And who knows how the news interpreted what happened back there? They've got to be worried sick."

"Then you should contact them," Raleigh suggested. "You know, once we get out of here."

"I don't know," Becky said. "When I left for college, I wasn't exactly on the best terms with them, anyway."

"You know how short life is, right?" Raleigh asked.

She nodded her head, thinking about all the friends she had who had died because of zombies.

"Then you shouldn't focus on that," Raleigh remarked. "Just that they're your family and they care about you. Once we leave Elswood, we'll help you get back in contact with them."

Becky just looked out the window in thought.

"Thank you," she softly sighed out after a few seconds of silence.

"So you really think we'll find something here?" Becky asked as the water supply plant came into view.

"Hopefully," Raleigh said. "I mean, the military lab nearby can't be a coincidence. And didn't Aldo once mention that some of their Russian allies had sold a bunch of barrels of T-5 for plenty of loot?"

"He did mention that," Becky agreed as Raleigh parked the minivan. "You think those people who bought the barrels could have been like Charles? Corrupt skanks doing their own tests with zombies?"

"Maybe," Raleigh admitted. He then looked at her with a slight smile on his face. "Let's hope they didn't have as big a sex dungeon as he did."

Becky laughed, figuring he was talking about the space that Charles had stashed the Tryoxin-5 barrels.

"Let's move," Raleigh announced, opening his door.

Becky followed him out and held her rifle in both her hands as they walked towards the entrance of the water supply plant. The doors were open, with bloodied handprints on them.

"Yeah, that's not foreboding at all," Becky commented.

The two of them walked through the facility, staying as quiet as they could in case of zombies. They had the flashlights underneath the muzzles of their guns on to brighten the dark hallways. After going through many hallways and passing multiple rooms with things inside that they couldn't even hope to understand, they reached a new hallway, where they found evidence of a last stand in a barricade set up with multiple tables and chairs. Clearly, it didn't end well, if the decapitated body and the other two bodies ripped in half were any indication.

"Never gets any easier, does it?" Becky gagged out.

"Not really," Raleigh admitted, grimacing the sight of the dead bodies.

Becky grimaced as she looked up at Raleigh, and grew suspicious at a doorway past him. She walked past Raleigh towards a door marked "Personnel access," that looked like the lock was broken. Pushing open the door with her rifle muzzle, Becky led Raleigh through more intricate looking hallways until they reached a room with a large water vat that was taller than both of them combined. The water inside had turned a dark shade of grey, indicating that it was what caused the outbreak.

"What the fuck?" Becky asked.

"The foundation for the town's water supply," Raleigh said. "The Tryoxin got in it and spread throughout the water."

"I think I see how it got in," Becky said, gesturing to something she saw on the other side of the room through the container.

She and Raleigh walked around the tank, and saw a familiar barrel of Tryoxin-5 with pipes leading into the open barrel.

"Sabotage," Becky confirmed. "Someone did this on purpose."

Raleigh just took a picture of the sight with his smartphone. Becky just looked at him, confused.

"Like I said," Raleigh explained, turning on the flash to get better pictures. "The military doesn't want evidence of the outbreak to get released to the public. And if we really stand a chance at stopping them, we're gonna need proof."

"Smart," Becky commented.

A clanking sound originated at one of the back walls, and Becky and Raleigh turned towards it, Becky raising her rifle towards the sound. With the light from Becky's flashlight, they witnessed a Tarman exactly like the one from the barrel at the college come into view.

Tarman raised his arms high and bellowed out in his garbled voice, "BRAINS!"

Becky, surprised, shot multiple shots at Tarman, a couple in his torso and one in his neck. The shock then wore off, and she fired a shot right into his head, knocking out a couple of Tarman's teeth.

"Brains!" Tarman just screamed again, as Raleigh took another couple of pictures of Tarman for evidence.

Raleigh put his phone away and held his rifle with both hands. He smacked the stock into Tarman's head, knocking him back into the wall. Becky hit Tarman with her own rifle, causing him to fall onto the ground with his back against the wall. Tarman muttered "Brains..." one more time before Raleigh kicked him in the head. To really drive it home, Raleigh beat his rifle stock into Tarman's head multiple times until it crushed the skull. The pieces of head and brain fell to the floor with Tarman's dead body.

"Wait, something just occurred to me," Becky said. "Did we ever find that Tarman from the campus?"

Raleigh looked up in thought, then looked at her with his eyes wide.

"We did not," Raleigh said surprisingly, nonchalant. "We'll have to talk to the group back at the base for that."

A clattering sound from the doors the two entered through garnered their attentions. They raised their rifles towards the doors as they looked towards them, ready for an attack.

"I don't think we're alone in here," Becky said.

Raleigh ran towards the doors and tucked his rifle underneath his arm and closed them. He grabbed a nearby chair and placed it in the right place underneath the door handles. He turned towards Becky as the two of them looked around for another door. Becky found one, and they ran through it as the zombies on the other side of the door started pushing against it. Raleigh closed the door behind them, and the two of them raised their rifles to add light.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," Becky decided.

"No arguments here," Raleigh agreed.

* * *

Julian exclaimed as the shotgun kickback hit him in the shoulder. He fired another shot through the RV window at another zombie and winced as he saw another head explode. He held on strongly as the RV thumped across the road. He quickly learned that trying to shoot while riding in a moving car wasn't exactly the easiest. He had a hard time holding on to make sure he didn't accidentally shoot one of the survivors, and not drop his shotgun.

Julian breathed out as he shot one more zombie, knocking the last one dangling from the RV onto the road.

"You get 'em all, Jules?" Cody asked from the driver's seat.

"Yeah," Julian panted. "Yeah, I think I got them off."

"You kids are surprisingly good at this," Bernard commented.

"Yeah, well," Cody said. "This isn't the first zombie outbreak we've had to survive."

"What are you talking about?" Randy asked. "I thought they got rid of all the zombies about 11 years ago."

"Hybra Tech, right?" Julian asked, at which Randy nodded. "That was a lie. They gathered the zombies and used a different strain to try to make super soldiers for world domination."

"Wh..." Stanley the black man said. "How the fuck do you know that?"

"My uncle was a technician there," Julian told them. "He did some of the experiments with the zombies." Julian sighed out. "He got a bunch of our friends killed."

"Now we try to avenge them by killing as many zombies as we can," Cody commented.

"I like you," Valerie the black woman said with a smile on her face.

Cody smiled at her, but then grimaced as he turned back to look at the road. Confused, Jason the blonde man looked towards Julian for answers.

"He accidentally caused another outbreak not too long ago at our college," Julian answered. "A lot of people, including his girlfriend, got killed. He's still getting over the guilt, but not doing too well."

Jason winced at that as the RV bumped, running over another zombie. Julian looked through the front window with Cody to see that they had reached the apartment complex.

"Let's get their attention," Cody said.

He placed his hand on the horn and pushed it, blaring the horn. In response, Spider left out the front door, and opened the gate. Cody drove the RV into the gate and Spider closed it behind them. Julian opened the door and led the five survivors out. Carter then came out and led the survivors into the apartments, explaining to them their current situation.

"We got another call from Julie that the armored vehicles are gone from the helicopter that we took into town," Spider told Cody and Julian. "I'm gonna use this RV you guys got to go get the food and supplies we left there."

"I'll go with you," Cody said. "I'm down for taking out a few more zombies."

"Fine by me," Spider said, climbing into the RV.

"I'll stay behind," Julian said. "Help Carter a bit here."

"All right," Cody said, patting his best friend on the shoulder. "Good luck."

"You, too," Julian said as Cody climbed back into the RV.

"What are you doing?" Cody asked as Spider went to sit in the driver's seat.

"I'm driving," Spider simply said.

"No, _I'm _driving," Cody corrected him, pointing at himself and pushing past him into the driver's seat.

"Hey, fuck you," Spider exclaimed, wondering if Cody knew he was actually a pretty bad driver.

Julian shot a couple of zombies outside the fence with his Beretta and opened the gate, letting Cody drive the RV out. Cody drove over another zombie while Julian closed the gate, shooting another zombie as he locked it.

"Stay away from the tap water!" Julian heard Carter's voice yell loudly from the still open door of the apartment complex.

"Uh, oh," Julian commented as he entered the building, ready to help out a bit.

* * *

Raleigh and Becky ran through the hallway, shooting rapidly at the zombies behind them as they tried rushing out. Becky panted as she already wasn't exactly the most fit, but bit through the stitch in her chest as she ran beside Raleigh. Raleigh fired a few more shots from his rifle as he looked forwards, seeing a door come into view. He emptied his rifle at the zombies as they ran towards the door.

They reached the door and ran in, entering a parking garage with a couple of cars, and a slightly open gate. Raleigh tossed his rifle to the ground and grabbed a nearby barrel as Becky closed the door behind them, pressing her weight against it to keep out the zombies. The zombies pressed against the door, trying to break through, and Becky grunted as she held on as long as she could. Raleigh moved the barrel between the door and Becky, blocking it off a bit.

"Let's get out through that gate," Raleigh said, slinging one M4 around his back, and holding the other one in his hands.

"Yeah," Becky panted out.

The two of them walked through the parking garage with their hands clutching their rifles tightly, as they didn't have as much ammo anymore. As they passed an armored car, a hand suddenly grabbed Becky's ankle, causing her to scream out in fright. Raleigh turned towards her and pointed his rifle at what grabbed her, and she looked towards it, frightened. But the only thing that had grabbed her was a man in a lab coat laying on the ground, clutching his side in pain.

"Please..." the man weakly said. "Help me... I was just following orders..."

Before the other two could ask what he meant, a zombie popped out of nowhere and bit the man on the neck, causing him to scream out in pain and tighten his grip on Becky. Raleigh didn't hesitate and shot the man in his wrist, making him let go of Becky. The two ran towards the gate as more zombies surrounded the man and, well, did what they do.

Becky and Raleigh ran towards the gate and slid their rifles underneath the open door. Becky then got on her hands and knees and crawled out of the lowered gate. Raleigh covered her as she crawled through before he followed her.

"Wait, Raleigh," Becky started to say as he had started to crawl through the gate.

Raleigh looked up and gulped at why Becky tried getting him to stop. Four military soldiers were standing right in front of them, pointing their guns at the two of them.

"Hands up, right now!" a soldier with a deep voice exclaimed to the two.

Raleigh and Becky complied and raised their hands in surrender.

"You!" the deep voiced soldier said to Raleigh. "What's that blood on your shirt from?"

"I got shot," Raleigh explained. "I was never bit."

"All right," the soldier said. "Stand up, both of you."

Raleigh and Becky complied and stood up, keeping their hands up in surrender.

"What were you doing here?" the soldier asked.

Both Raleigh and Becky stayed silent, not sure what to say. One of the soldiers pumped his shotgun to emphasize that they were serious.

"Answer him!" the soldier exclaimed.

"We were looking for survivors," Becky lied. "We figured, you know, strength in numbers. It'd be good for fighting those things."

"Yeah," Raleigh agreed, nodding.

The soldiers seemed like they believed the girl's words, at least until one of them inspected the two's rifles on the ground. He picked up Becky's g36 and gestured to a sticked with a skull and crossbones on the right side, just behind the muzzle.

"This is Jackson's rifle," he told the other soldiers. He gestured to the now wide eyed Raleigh and Becky. "This random girl looking for survivors has a rifle from a member of our squadron."

_Uh, oh,_ Becky thought.

The soldiers cocked their rifles and pointed them at both Becky and Raleigh's heads.

"How'd you get these guns?" the deep voiced soldier asked.

"We... took them off of some dead bodies," Raleigh kind of didn't lie. "It's not like they were using them, anymore."

"Bullshit!" the soldier who picked up the rifle exclaimed. "Jackson is one of the best fighters I know, he wouldn't let himself get killed by some zombies."

"Well, he let himself get killed by a stoner pretty easily," Becky decided to just go all out and antagonize the soldiers. She remembered that she had picked up the g36 from the guy who Spider had saved them from.

The soldier who had picked up the rifle suddenly and angrily raised his rifle at her head, but the lead soldier grabbed his comrade's rifle, stopping him.

"They killed our men!" the angry soldier told the lead soldier.

"I know," the lead soldier told him. "But we don't know how much they know. We need to find out what they do know."

Raleigh took advantage of the lead soldier being distracted, and kicked him in the knee armpit. He quickly grabbed the soldier by his shoulder and held him up to block any fire and grabbed the man's rifle. He fired the rifle at the other soldiers, and Becky helped with her Colt handgun. The soldiers fell to the ground, not exactly dead, but dropping their guns. Becky even helped by shooting the lead soldier in the leg, making him fall to the ground.

"You... sons of bitches!" the angry soldier exclaimed.

"You're doing experiments on innocent people to make them into zombies," Becky angrily exclaimed at the soldier as they picked up their guns. "And _we're_ the sons of bitches? There's a special place in hell for you skanks."

"Definitely a teenager," one of the downed soldiers commented.

"We were..." the lead soldier coughed out. "Just following orders."

"Screw your orders," Raleigh snapped at the soldier.

A growling sound drew Becky and Raleigh's attention towards the gate. Zombies had started to crawl out through the gate they didn't get a chance to close. Becky raised her g36 at the zombies before Raleigh stopped her.

"Save your ammo," Raleigh told her. "Besides, I think they'll be pretty distracted, anyway."

He was right. The zombies' immediate attention was on the wounded soldiers on the ground. They exclaimed in fear and pain as the zombies climbed onto them and started biting into them.

Becky followed Raleigh back to the minivan and they climbed inside, putting the extra guns they had grabbed into the back seat. Raleigh put the car into drive, and they quickly drove through the town.

"What do we do next?" Becky asked, still a little winded from the running.

"That scientist and those soldiers claim they were just following orders," Raleigh explained. "And I saw a sticker on the T-5 barrel that it definitely belonged to the military base. So, there's only one place we can find the answers we're looking for."

"It's not gonna be that good, is it?" Becky asked.

"Nope," Raleigh admitted. "We've gotta break into the military lab."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably am going to make this into a series, after all. I just really like the idea of the people I've gathered here into a zombie fighting team, along with occasional cameos of other characters that belong to the same series of the well dressed people in charge from Unlimited. But aside from that, happy new year!


	7. Standard zombie outbreak moments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Supplies are gathered and plans are made

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't feel real good with the bikers, but I had to make it even more of a satisfying moment when the boys kill them. What really makes me sad is that people like that still exist in the country today

Cody grunted as he felt the RV run over a speed bump. A fleshy, bone filled speed bump that left grey matter splattered on the ground. He didn't know how Julian was able to stand it while he was driving; it felt so weird to run over a head.

"Watch it, man!" Spider exclaimed, getting his balance back.

For whatever reason, the punk chose to remain standing during the car ride. Cody didn't know why, as even _he _knew that wasn't exactly a smart idea.

"You don't really wanna shaking around a car while someone inside's holding a sharp knife," Spider lamented, sliding his knife into its sheath.

"Fine," Cody said, looking up at Spider through the mirror at the top of the windshield. "Then _you_ tell all the zombies to move out of the way of the RV."

"I... think I'll pass," Spider sighed out, resolving to just sit in the passenger's seat.

"This is very different from the last outbreak you and your friends had to fight through, eh?" Cody asked, briefly looking over at Spider as he drove.

"So different," Spider agreed. "Makes me wish it were _these_ zombies we faced back at that funeral home. We could have taken them all out with our blunt weapons alone."

"Yeah," Cody agreed. "Breaking the neck _does_ work with these ones."

"Like that one you fought hand to hand at Necropolis," Spider pointed out, literally pointing at Cody.

"Exactly," Cody laughed.

The two laughed for a few seconds, then sighed out.

"You miss your friends?" Cody asked.

"So much," Spider admitted. "Even though I've had a little time to adjust, it's still hard to believe this is all real. Hell, to me, just a day and a half ago, my friends and I were trying to find a good place to party! And now... It's more than twenty years into the future, half of them are dead, and I'm killing zombies and military pricks with some crazy good magicians."

"And hot-boxing it in their closets," Cody pointed out.

"Yeah," Spider sighed out. "Things have changed pretty drastically, pretty quickly. I hope that Raleigh guy's got a pretty damn good therapist, 'cause I'm gonna need to talk to one once we finish up here."

"Get in line," Cody told him. "I had to watch two of my friends die, help my best friend get over the deaths of his parents and brother, fight off his zombie mom's attacks with an electric saw, save my girlfriend from a topless zombie, then watch her get killed because _I _wanted a quick way to make money."

"Fuck, we've all been through a lot," Spider realized.

"That, we have," Cody agreed.

"We're gonna get so high once we get out of this town," Spider promised Cody.

"Looking forward to it," Cody laughed as they drove.

"Okay," Spider smiled at his new friend. "Then you can help me figure out some more about the recent changes and the 21st century. I tried looking on a computer last night; most complicated fucking thing I've ever done. Saw a bit, didn't understand it all. Like, who the fuck is this 'Crocodile Hunter' guy? And why is everyone so sad that he died?"

Cody looked at Spider, then back at the road.

"Okay, there's a _lot_ we've gotta go over," Cody told him.

Cody continued to drive the RV with Julie giving him directions via the drones. They made their way through a long suburbia until they eventually reached the cul-de-sac that the helicopter had crashed in. They drove over the corpses of zombies they had killed until the helicopter and busted vehicles came into sight. However, they weren't expecting what they saw once they got close enough.

Various motorcycles with attachable rigs were nearby, with lots of equipment inside them, ranging from weapons, bandages, clothes, and water bottles. However, in one or two of the rigs were a couple of people tied down with zip ties on their wrists and ankles, and duck tape on their mouths.

The stereotypical looking bikers stood around, some holding big guns, some going into the helicopter, a couple of them placing the boxes from the helicopter in the empty rigs.

"Uh, I don't think they know that's our stuff," Spider commented as they drove the RV closer.

"Either way, we need it," Cody said, determined, as he parked the RV. The noise of the car was enough to garner the attention of the bikers.

"I hope you know what we're doing," Spider said as he grabbed his M4 rifle.

"I'm pretty sure I do," Cody uneasily said as he stood up and grabbed his M16.

Cody slung his rifle around his shoulder, and the two exited the RV. Cody made sure to park it a good enough way behind the cars that were already heavily damaged after their confrontation with the soldiers. He and Spider walked towards the vehicles, and looked towards the bikers.

"I count nine of them," Spider whispered to Cody. "Nine if you include the sharpshooter in the house to the left."

Cody looked to the left to see what Spider was talking about. In a nearby house, he could see someone in a sniper's position from a second floor building.

"How do you do that?" Cody whispered.

"Years of practice," Spider whispered back.

"That's far enough," a male biker with a red bandana over the bottom of his face announced to the two.

Cody and Spider stopped right next to the pickup truck riddled with bullets. The biker with the bandana was wearing the stereotypical leather jacket, as were his associates. His red hair was made into a mohawk, and sunglasses covered his eyes. He rested a Mare's leg shotgun on his right shoulder with his right hand.

"It wouldn't exactly make a lot of sense for either of us to start shootin' at each other," the biker said.

"You're right, it wouldn't," Cody agreed. "So if you'd just give us our supplies, we won't have any problems."

"You're supplies?" the biker simply asked, nonchalantly.

"We took this helicopter into town," Spider said. "With the intention of saving people. The food and supplies are for the people during the time here."

"Well, that's a real interesting story," the biker said in a tone that the two knew meant he was taking this lightly. "But there are some plot holes. One, I don't see why anyone would willingly come into town with the crazy shit going on. Two, even if you did, just saying you took this chopper into town doesn't automatically make me believe you did. And three, I don't give an ever-loving shit if these are your supplies or not. They're ours, now... niggers."

It was then that both Cody and Spider realized that none of the bikers were black. And a particularly bruised prisoner on the rig was.

_You gotta be fuckin' kidding me_, both of the black men thought simultaneously.

"You guys are real assholes, huh?" Spider asked, still gripping his rifle.

"I'd watch your tongue, boy," the biker remarked, gesturing with his shotgun at the young punk. "After all, we're the ones with the power here."

He wasn't exactly wrong. The other eight bikers all had their guns in their hands, some with handguns, some with automatics, and one other with a shotgun. Adding that to the sniper in the house, they didn't have a lot of options.

But Spider didn't care. He had already cocked his rifle when he was in the RV, and turned off the safety. He just had to wait for the right moment.

"Let's all of us calm down," Cody suggested, raising his left hand in surrender, keeping his left hidden thanks to the bullet filled truck between him and the bikers. "Maybe we can work out a solution where, we all win."

"I don't see that happening," the lead biker declared, lowering his shotgun from his shoulder. "In any possible way."

Cody thought about that for a second, and looked at some of the bikers, who looked at him in return. He looked down and sighed out.

"You know, that's a damn shame," Cody admitted.

With his hidden hand, Cody pulled his Glock out of his holster, then quickly pointed it towards the sniper, firing off multiple shots. Spider took his opportunity and fired his rifle into the lead biker's chest, and into two closer bikers, hitting one in the stomach, and the other in her knees. Cody managed to hit the sniper, but from the looks of it, only in the shoulder. The two black men ducked behind the truck as the remaining bikers started firing at them.

Spider grit his teeth and slammed to the ground hard. He looked through his rifle scope as he aimed it underneath the pickup. He fired into two more biker's legs, knocking them to the ground, but not killing them. Cody crept along the side of the truck and winced at the sound of the gunfire hitting the pickup. He peered over the side and saw the bikers mostly shooting into the center of the truck. Cody took advantage of that, and aimed with his Glock. He fired multiple times, hitting a female biker twice in the chest, and a fallen biker in the head. But he quickly had to move again as the remaining bikers shot where he was.

Cody quickly replaced his Glock with his M16, and got ready as he heard the bikers stop firing, knowing they were about to start moving closer to the car, similar to the mercenaries from before. He and Spider locked eyes, and nodded their heads at each other. They both popped up and fired rapidly towards the remaining five bikers. They took out the two still on the ground, and a standing one before Spider ducked back down, and Cody was shot by the sniper in the shoulder.

"Damn it!" Cody exclaimed, clutching his shoulder.

Luckily, like Raleigh promised, his jacket kept the bullet from penetrating his skin. Didn't stop it from hurting like hell, though.

"You all right?" Spider asked.

"Shoulder feels like it's on fire," Cody remarked.

"You're fine," Spider remarked, replacing his M4 with his revolver.

Just then, the two remaining bikers jumped out from either side and pointed their guns at the two black men.

"Any last words?" the one pointing his Uzi at Cody asked.

"Fuck off," Spider said.

It seemed like time had sped up as the two fought off the bikers. Cody grabbed the biker's Uzi and pointed it away, causing him to fire it into the ground. Spider just shot his biker in the crotch, causing the biker to fall to the ground, clutching their crotch in pain.

"Sorry, bro, but I don't like racists," Spider told the biker.

"I'm a woman," the biker remarked in pain.

Spider raised an eyebrow, confused a bit. In the end, he decided it didn't matter, and shot the biker in her head.

Cody meanwhile, fought through the pain in his shoulder, and punched the biker multiple times in the chest, and once in the face. But then the biker suddenly grabbed him and held him in position. Cody grunted, realizing that the man was moving him in place for the sniper. He sighed out, getting an idea. Just as he heard a gunshot ring out, he moved the biker in front of him, even making the biker's face go in front of his. The biker's forehead then exploded, causing blood to get all over Cody's face.

Spider finished off the sniper by using the scope on his rifle to help him shoot the man right in the head from this far away.

Cody sighed out, making sure not even a drop of blood or brain in his mouth.

"Here," Spider said, holding out a rag to his friend. "You kind of need it... everywhere."

Cody accepted the rag with thanks and wiped it across his face. While he did that, Spider slung his rifle across his shoulder and went over to the captive survivors. He took the duct tape off of both of their mouths and went to undo the zip ties around the bruised black man's wrists with his knife.

"Thank you so much," the black man said, breathily relieved.

"Hey, no problem," Spider said, successfully cutting the zip tie. "What'd they hassle you two for, anyway?"

"They figured it'd be good to have bait in case they ran into a big group of undead they couldn't handle," the blonde woman explained. "They figured, 'why not do it with the interracial couple?'"

"That is fucked up," Spider said.

"On a number of levels," Cody agreed, walking over to help.

"You said," the man said weakly. "You said you're planning an evacuation?"

"In two days," Spider confirmed, cutting the ties at the man's ankles. "It's so long because that's the only way to get out everyone we can without drawing too much attention to the military pricks who caused this mess."

"We'd like to be included," the woman said as Cody helped free her.

"My name is James Capshaw," the black man introduced himself. "And this is my wife, Marlene."

"Nice to meet you both," Spider said. "Now how are you guys at carrying equipment?"

"I can probably carry a couple of small boxes," James admitted.

"I can carry a crate or two at a time," Marlene told them, helping her husband stand up.

"Still gonna take us a while packing it all in the RV," Cody admitted.

"Then we'll have to hurry," Spider decided. "Who knows what kind of mess that gunfire attracted?"

The three agreed and set to work. They moved as quickly as they could to pack all the crates and boxes of supplies into the back of the RV. They even took the bikers' guns for just in case situations. They packed the rest of the supplies from both the helicopter and the bikers' rigs just as the first batch of new zombies came up over the horizon.

"Let's get moving," Spider said, holding his revolver in his hands as he stood in the doorway of the RV.

"Hang on a second," Cody said, looking towards the available motorcycles.

"Dude, I'm a shitty driver," Spider admitted, already knowing what Cody was thinking. "I don't like my chances of trying to get them back to the hotel in one piece."

Cody looked towards the bikes, then back at the zombies, and sighed out.

"Can't have any fun," Cody muttered, climbing in the RV after Spider.

He sat in the driver's seat and turned the RV around, ready for the trek back to the hotel complex.

* * *

Julian sighed out as he sat in the chair of the hotel complex doorman station. He and Carter had had to do a full explanation to the people there why it was important to stay away from the tap water and water in the bathrooms, how their scientist friend detected the germ causing zombies in the town's water. They didn't go into full detail about the Tryoxin, as they didn't feel it was entirely that important.

It wasn't exactly easy since there were a lot of people who had to use the bathroom, but couldn't risk it because of the toilet water. Which did lead to a bit of a funny moment on the roof.

Everyone had gathered there, and the older man, Bernard, was complaining about the situation.

"What are we supposed to do, pee off the roof?" he had asked.

"That's exactly what you're expected to do," Carter simply said.

"But I have a bad case of diarrhea," Bernard admitted. "How do I do that?"

Carter answered by simply giving the man a bucket and a roll of toilet paper.

"Wear thick gloves and plug your nose as you pour it off the roof," Carter elaborated, also handing over gloves and a thing of hand sanitizer.

That had, admittedly, gotten a laugh out of Julian. Until he realized that he would also have to do that.

As he sat at the doorman's station, Julian was doing his best to forget that little "event."

"Sorry, man," Carter told him. "But it doesn't hurt to be overly cautious in this kind of situation."

"I know," Julian admitted with his eyes closed. "I just... don't want to think about doing that right now."

"Understandable," Carter admitted. "Try talking. It'll help you forget it."

"Why are you here, Carter?" Julian suddenly asked.

Carter wasn't expecting that.

"I meant for _you _to talk," Carter said. "I didn't mean for me to talk."

"You know the reason I'm doing this," Julian said. "You know why I'm here and why I want to do this. But I barely know anything about you, Raleigh, or the others. So tell me, why are you here?"

Carter saw there was no way out of this one and sighed out.

"I was asked if I would join Raleigh's operation out here," he explained. "And I agreed."

"That's it?" Julian asked.

"I don't know why I did it, either," Carter admitted. "I have a sister, brothers-in-law that I like, great friends, and a niece that I love. It's just... whenever we do these operations, I don't get picked a lot, so the first time I was asked for assistance, I jumped at the opportunity. I figured there was some elaborate plan from the start, though."

"You didn't expect to have to enter a city to help save a bunch of people from zombies?" Julian asked.

"I figured we'd have to enter a city and help save a bunch of people," Carter admitted. "That's nothing new for us. But zombies... those are unique, even for me."

"If zombies are unique for you, then what are you usually saving the cities from?" Julian asked, curious.

"Oh," Carter said, looking up in thought. "Monsters. Demons. Maniac warlords trying to destroy the world. Standard stuff."

"Right..." Julian said, uncertainly, with his eyes wide.

"Like I said," Carter continued. "There's a lot of us, so there's a bit of diversity among our groups. Even if we do mostly consist of white men."

"Dude," Julian said. "You're making me want to visit your home for the weekend."

"We might have some trouble with that," Carter admitted. "I haven't learned to put people through that kind of travel without them disintegrating."

"What the hell kind of travel risks disintegration?" Julian asked.

"It's a long story," Carter admitted. "One we don't exactly have time for."

He was right. Julian had just gotten a call on his phone, and answered to find Spider.

"We're almost there," the punk explained. "We'll get all the supplies in the lobby before moving it to the parking garage."

"Got it," Julian said. "We'll get to the gate."

Julian and Carter got to the gate and attracted the nearby zombies towards it, killing them with their crowbar and machete. Once they were dead, Julian opened the gate at the sight of the arriving RV. Carter closed it behind them, and Cody led the survivors inside the base, while the other three carried all the supplies into the lobby.

"Man, my arms are dead," Spider sighed out, tired, as he rested in the chair at the doorman's desk. Like when he was at the funeral home in Louisville, it didn't occur to Spider to use a different word.

"We'll park the RV, then," Cody said, gesturing to himself and Carter.

"Wait one second," Julian said.

He went to the back of the RV and detached the Ducati from it. He helped ease it onto the ground and rolled it near the door.

"A bike like this shouldn't be rotting away in a place like that," he simply said.

"Good point," Cody agreed.

Cody and Carter took the RV outside the gate and around the side road, with Julian closing the gate behind them.

Julian then checked with Spider, who was in and out of consciousness.

"Things look alright around here," Spider managed to get out. "And I'm just now realizing how long a day it's been. I think... I'm gonna..."

He fell asleep sitting in the chair. Julian supposed he was right, though. It _had_ been a long day so far. And for the first time since arriving in town, Julian didn't have an objective at the moment. What was he to do?

Julian looked around until he caught sight of the Ducati out front. He looked down to see one of the tool boxes they had picked up from the bikers, and he smiled. He picked up the tool box, and walked to the Ducati, ready for work he was more familiar with.

* * *

Raleigh peered out the windshield of the minivan at the entrance of the military base in front of them. He and Becky had found the base not too long ago, and drove around the roads around it, trying to find any weaknesses or leaks in the walls that they could break into at the moment. So far, they hadn't found one, so they just stayed parked in front of the blocked entrance, trying to think of something.

"I really don't think this is a good idea," Becky said from the passenger seat. "Sitting out here in the open like this, who knows what'll happen?"

"We should be all right," Raleigh told her once again.

"_Should_ being the key word," Becky remarked. "We've killed a bunch of their men already, and the ones who knew about it weren't exactly the nicest. How do we know that their friends in there will be any different?"

"Becky, relax," Raleigh told her. "It doesn't look like there's anyone around at the moment."

"Isn't that the point?" Becky asked. "Ambiance. Make it not look so suspicious. You know, to hide all the shady shit they're doing in there."

"You've seen too many spy movies," Raleigh remarked. "Just relax. If the outbreak really was deliberate, then maybe there isn't as many people inside. So maybe we can-"

He was cut off when rapid gunfire arose and the sound of bullets hitting metal came from their car. Becky and Raleigh quickly ducked in the feet rests of their car and watched as the windshield was destroyed by gunfire. Raleigh moved the car out of park and into reverse, and stomped on the gas. He blindly drove the car backwards down the street, away from the military base.

Once the gunfire stopped hitting the car and instead started hitting the road, Raleigh got back up in his seat and changed the gear back into drive. He turned the car around and started driving down the street once again, wiping the broken glass off of his dashboard.

Becky brushed the broken glass and metal bits off of her seat and sat back in it.

"Should I say 'I told you so' now," Becky started, a little more freaked out than she let on. "Or wait until we get back to the base?"

"I'll let you know later," Raleigh said. "Right now, we have to figure out how we're gonna get in there now."

"Why don't we just ask for a tour?" Becky sarcastically asked. "I'm sure they're giving them out for free."

"All right, I get it, you were right," Raleigh said.

"That's all I needed to hear," Becky sighed out. "As for getting in the base, I don't think it'll be easy to do without seriously heavy artillery."

"Okay," Raleigh said, parking the car once he was sure they were far enough. "I'm sure my old friend, Slade is willing to lend us some of his exo-suits."

"Wait," Becky said. "I might have a simpler idea."

"Shoot," Raleigh told her. "Let's hear it."

"We get a distraction for the military pricks," Becky suggested. "Draw all of their attentions while we find a way inside, and get the information we want."

"Sounds like an easy enough plan," Raleigh said. "But how are we supposed to do that?"

"Maybe some kind of explosion in a side wall," Becky said. "That could be distracting enough."

"Maybe," Raleigh agreed. "But not enough for all of them. We need something big enough to get the attention of the entire base."

Becky thought about it, with the stereotypical hand on her chin. The sound of shuffling zombies nearby made her raise her guard, though, so they weren't ambushed. Looking at the nearby zombie attract other nearby zombies, Becky got an idea.

"What would be a better distraction," Becky started, getting Raleigh's attention, gesturing to the zombies. "Than a whole boatload of zombies?"

Raleigh looked over to the zombies, and smiled.

"Symbolic justice," he remarked. "Take them out with the very same thing they were studying. I like it."

Raleigh put the car into Drive and started driving them back to the apartment complex.

"Where do we start?" Becky asked.

"We take these supplies back to base," Raleigh explained. "Then we figure out how to gather together as many zombies as we can."

"There was a bike on the back of that RV," Becky said. "Maybe Julian, Cody, and I can..."

"Already on it," Julian's voice suddenly appeared in her ear.

"Jules?" Becky asked.

"It slipped on a while ago," Julian explained over the comlink. "Around the time you guys left the water supply plant."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Becky asked.

"Didn't need to," Julian admitted. "Especially since it's good you didn't hear some of the stuff going on here. But, anyway, we got all the supplies here and I had nothing to do, so I started working on the Ducati. With Cody's help, we're amping it up to be rideable."

"Good," Becky said. "We'll need it if we're gonna get a big enough horde."

"Got it," Julian said.

"By the way," Becky said. "What stuff out there didn't you want us to hear about?"

"Uh..." Julian said uncertainly. "Cody needs my help right now, I gotta go."

Becky laughed as Julian signed out.

"I'll get him to tell me what happened," Becky laughed to a confused Raleigh. "Just you watch."


	8. Plans and armored vehicles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group plans an invasion while others save innocents

"This bike is in very good condition," Julian remarked, observing one of the inner mechanisms. "You know, despite the fact it's had a whole day's worth of decay in a zombie outbreak."

"Seems like that's how we're gonna have to order all our bikes while we're here," Becky pointed out with her hands in her jacket pockets.

"If they're as okay as this one," Cody said, looking between his friends. "I think we won't have too many problems."

After Becky and Raleigh had gotten back to the complex, they parked the ruined minivan in front of the gate and gathered in the front. They all discussed the plan for the attack on the military lab while Julian worked on the motorcycle. After the last few hours, they trusted the people inside the complex enough that they knew they wouldn't try anything treacherous, so they left them inside to their own devices. Their plannings led them through the afternoon and into the first hours of dusk, with nearby street lights powering on.

"The main problem would be how we gather all of the undead," Carter pointed out. "I mean, once we get them, where do we stash them for when we need them?"

"He's got a point," Becky agreed. "And how are we supposed to lead them to the base, anyway? If they really get distracted easily, and it takes one zombie to distract a bunch of other zombies, then how are we supposed to get them along the right path?"

"The last one," Raleigh said, pointing at Becky. "That's an easy answer. We get a vehicle on each side of the horde, keep them in line on both sides. We'll need to call in backup from back home for the extra hands. As there's only six of us, it won't be enough for something that huge, while also simultaneously keeping things in line here."

"Well, with that question answered, we're back to the first one," Spider pointed out. "How are we supposed to get that many corpses ready at a moment's notice?"

"You'll have to worry about that at another time," Rigby's voice announced from Raleigh's nearby computer.

They looked towards the computer to see the ginger haired young adult on the screen.

"The drones are getting two reports of survivors in danger in the city," Rigby explained. "One on the roof of a pawn shop in a deep part of the city with the streetlights broken, and one in a pizza parlor."

Julian wiped the sweat off his brow with a rag and looked towards the others.

"We'll have to figure it out later," Julian announced. "We have to help those people."

"Carter and I can head to the car lot," Cody said. "Try to find another RV or big vehicle, then go to the pizza parlor."

"I'll take the RV into to the pawn shop," Becky said. "I'm tired of looking for science shit, it's time to help people."

"I'll go with you," Julian said. "Like Raleigh said, we can't go anywhere alone. And with all the horror movies we've seen, I think going into a dark part of the city alone during a zombie outbreak is definitely a big no-no."

"Look at you, learning the ropes," Raleigh proudly said, gesturing to Julian."

"Hey," Becky said. "As long as you pull the pin out of a grenade in a zombie's pocket again, I'm cool with it."

Julian chuckled at that.

"We'll give you guys a ride to the car lot," Becky told Cody and Carter. "We've got no time to waste."

The four gathered some weapons and supplies and went into the parking garage and RV. Spider opened the gate and they drove off. He closed the gate behind them and stood, staring at the door, as another survivor, the black woman, Valerie, regarded him.

"You guys have gotta be crazy to be going back out there," she remarked.

"Maybe," Spider admitted. "But it's what we gotta do to help people in need."

"Wow," Valerie said, amazed. "You guys are very noble."

"Don't got much else to do," Spider admitted, shrugging his shoulders.

"Still," Valerie said, looking at him intently. "It's kind of hot."

Spider looked at her, and the two looked away, slightly embarrassed. A few moments of silence passed between them.

"You wanna go have sex?" Valerie suddenly asked.

"Yes," Spider immediately said.

The two ran up the stairs to the apartments, with Spider already unzipping his jacket.

* * *

Julian drove the RV back into the car lot and parked it. Carter opened the window and shot at the zombies around with his silenced Uzi. Once they were dead, he and Cody climbed out. They had each brought duffle bags with extra supplies. In addition to Cody's M16, both also carried modified MP5 rifles similar to the ones used back at Necropolis. This time, though, Cody was determined to take out more than just six zombies with his one gun.

"Good luck, boys," Becky called out to their friends.

"You, too," Cody waved to Becky.

"Be safe," Julian called out as he put the RV back into drive.

"We will," Carter promised. "For maybe five minutes."

Julian sighed out at the realistically of that situation, and drove the RV out of the lot.

The two black gentlemen looked around the lot for another RV, but couldn't find one. Carter even climbed onto another minivan, but couldn't see one around.

"Just our luck," Cody remarked. "Out of all the abandoned cars in this lot, only one of them turned out to be an RV."

"Now what are we supposed to do?" Carter asked. "It's not like we're just gonna be presented with armored vehicles like that."

He snapped his fingers to elaborate his point.

All of a sudden, gunfire originated from the entrance gates, and the two moved into a defense position behind the minivan. Carter looked over the top and quickly moved back down before the guns took out his head. He was able to see two military grade vehicles at the entrance of the lot, shooting at the minivan in front of them. On top of the vehicles were mini guns that were operated by people in black and grey camouflage outfits.

"What do you know?" Carter laughed at Cody over the gunfire. "It seems the gods are granting us with good fortune today."

Cody looked at Carter like he was crazy.

"How is this good fortune?" Cody asked. "There's two military level vehicles shooting really big guns at us!"

"That's the thing, Cody," Carter said, replacing his Uzi with a .45 longslide handgun. "These are just humans. And humans are a lot easier for me to take out."

Carter then jumped out and started backflipping in front of the cars, dodging all of their bullets. Each time he landed, he scanned the location of the military soldiers, and where their weak spots were. The next time he backflipped, he aimed his handgun towards the vehicles. He fired one shot, right into the soldier's head. When he backflipped again, he shot the other soldier, taking out both big guns.

Cody took the opportunity and aimed his rifle at one of the cars. Carter joined him and walked towards the vehicles with his handgun raised.

"I wouldn't do anything that you're gonna regret, boys!" Cody yelled at the drivers of the military vehicles.

"Come on out with your hands up," Carter added.

Slowly, the doors to each military vehicle opened, and each driver's left hand raised in surrender, followed by the drivers' heads. Then, both the drivers tried raising their handguns towards the two black gentlemen, but they both shot the soldiers right in their heads.

"People can be so rude," Carter commented, sliding his handgun back into its holster.

"How the hell did you do all that?" Cody asked Carter.

"I'm a ninja," Carter simply said.

"I am _so_ visiting your home for the weekend with Julian," Cody declared, pointing at Carter.

"As soon as we figure out how to do it without you guys disintegrating," Carter promised.

The two walked towards the armored vehicles. Both of them combined were enough to carry the survivors that were in the pizza parlor. Plus, they couldn't deny that the big guns would come in handy. So, they each climbed into an armored car and activated them with the keys they stole from the soldiers' corpses.

"Let's get moving," Carter said into the comlink.

"This is gonna rock!" Cody exclaimed, excited.

Cody whooped excitedly as they drove out of the car lot.

* * *

"So what is it you don't want me to know happened?" Becky excitedly asked for the fourth time, even though she already knew what Julian's answer was gonna be.

"I'm not gonna tell you," Julian said once again. "No matter how many times you bug me about it."

"Hey, it benefits to be annoying sometimes," Becky told him. "I'll get it out of you eventually."

"Don't bet on it," Julian told her.

Becky sighed out, looking out the window at the darkening sky as they drove through the city.

"It seems so surreal, doesn't it?" she asked. "Everything we've been through the last week alone, and the truth about our senior year."

"I still have trouble believing it all myself," Julian admitted. "Especially the stuff Raleigh and Carter talk about."

"Raleigh told you about his friend, Slade, who has the exo-suits?" Becky asked.

"No," Julian said. "But Carter told me that to travel to their home, I'd be risking disintegration. I mean, what the hell?"

"Plus, the magic," Becky pointed out. "The way too advanced technology. What kind of people are we involved with right now?"

"That might be a difficult question to answer," Julian pointed out. "Even if they're our 'friends,' they are still really mysterious. They open up now and then, but they're still really cryptic with their answers."

"That might be what they're going for," Becky suggested. "Try to remain mysterious, or some shit."

"Doesn't make a lot of sense for them to remain mysterious even when we're supposed to be friends, though," Julian pointed out.

"Okay, that's true," Becky agreed. "But we can't deny that they're at least being nice about it all. Offering us a new home, access however much money that they have, some pretty decent games and sports, and revenge on the real people responsible for making us lose our friends and family. Can't deny all that."

"Yeah, that's true," Julian admitted. "And I am starting to like Raleigh and Carter, so maybe we really are friends. Plus, the idea of becoming Leon Kennedys or Claire Redfields of this universe is starting to grow on me."

"Hell, yeah!" Becky exclaimed, excitedly pumping her fist.

After a second of silence, Becky commented, "I think I'm Jill Valentine."

Julian laughed.

"What would that make Cody?" he asked. "Chris Redfield?"

"No, no, no," Becky said, waving her hand. "He's Carlos Oliveira."

Julian laughed.

"I see it," Julian admitted.

"That makes Jenny the Claire to your Leon," Becky pointed out, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

"What makes you so sure Leon and Claire got together?" Julian asked. "After all, Leon is a ladies' man."

"You're right," Becky pointed out. "She's Claire, and you're definitely not Leon."

"Hey!" Julian exclaimed, offended.

Becky laughed, and after a few seconds, Julian joined in.

After a few more seconds of driving, the two came to the road that was right before the roads blacked out. They stopped the RV right before turning down that road.

"All right, Rigby," Julian said into his earpiece. "Are we near the pawn shop?"

"I can't tell," Rigby told him. "The drone's down, and we can't see where the shop is. But we can trace the equipment near your equipment. It's right in front of you."

"Let's go," Becky said, grabbing her rifle and getting up out of her seat.

Julian grabbed his shotgun and covered her from the window as she opened the door and stepped outside with her gun raised. As she stood ready, Julian followed her outside. They continued to keep their weapons raised as they walked down the side of the RV of the blackened street. Julian lowered his left hand from the shotgun pump and pulled out his flashlight. He turned it on and saw the drone right in the middle of the street, in the intersection of the two roads. Becky continued to cover Julian as he slowly walked towards the downed drone.

"All right, we found the drone," he whispered into the earpiece. "What do I do?"

"Look around it for any anomalies," Rigby told him. "People probably didn't register the drone too well and might have hit something on it."

Julian placed his shotgun on the ground and picked up the drone with both hands, turning it over and inspecting different parts of it.

"Something feels wrong, Jules," Becky whispered to him.

"Don't worry," Julian told him. "We won't be out here too long."

He found the problem quickly.

"Oh, it's simple," Julian said into the intercom. "Looks like some survivor just hit it with a rock or something. Knocked it down and when it landed, the power buttons were hit and shut down. Just one or two buttons pressed and..."

He pressed the right buttons and the drone turned back on. It blared it's lights and flew up. As Julian picked up his shotgun, he watched as the lights of the drone illuminated the street.

The good news was that it revealed the pawn shop at the end of the street.

The bad news was the army of hundreds of undead that stood between them and the shop.

The zombies had just been simply shuffling around from the looks of it. They went around from one direction to another, not looking for a particular place. That is, until the lights came on, and the zombies looked in the direction of where the drone originated, right at Julian and Becky.

"Shit!" Julian exclaimed at the sight of dozens of zombies turning towards them.

"Fuck!" Becky exclaimed in equal fear as she started moving towards the RV.

The two ran to the RV just as the zombies started shuffling towards them. They closed the door behind them and swore that the lock was broken. Julian climbed into the driver's seat and urned the key, making the engine roar to life.

"What do we do now?" Becky asked. "There's gotta be hundreds of those pricks out there!"

"Simple," Julian said.

He drove the RV down the road, past all the zombies. He drove the RV down the road, moving a bit farther from the pawn shop.

"What about the people in the shop?" Becky asked.

"We're still gonna help them," Julian assured her. "But there are too many zombies to get through the road without something going bad. We have to lure some of them away from the front of the shop, then move in as quickly as we can. We get the survivors, and get the hell out."

"Okay," Becky breathed out, calming down a bit. "Okay, that's a good plan."

Julian turned the RV at an intersection. He put it in reverse and backed into the entrance of a street. He then put it back into drive and drove back down the road he just drove out of. Since the lock was broken on the RV's door, he wanted that door to be as close to the door of the pawn shop as possible.

Julian drove past the zombies shuffling down the street, getting their attentions. They feebly followed the RV down the road as Julian kept driving. He made a left turn down the next road and kept driving until he made another left turn down onto the raod the pawn shop was on.

Many of the zombies had shuffled down the road in front of the pawn shop, but not too far. So, Julian drove the RV in front of the pawn shop and parked.

Julian and Becky exited the RV with their guns raised, ready for an attack. Becky went up to the shut door of the shop. Not seeing anyone through the blackened windows, she pressed her hand on a window and got closer, trying to get a better look.

"Hello!" Becky called into the shop. "Is anybody in there?"

There was a little bit of shuffling around in the shop that she could see. But then she jumped back in surprise as zombies came out of the darkness and pounded on the windows. Becky raised her g36 rifle, but Julian stopped her from firing.

"We don't know how many are in there," he informed her. "You shoot the glass, and they could swarm us with the ones on the street."

"Good point," Becky admitted. "But where are the survivors?"

"Up here!" A female voice announced above them.

They looked up past the awning of the shop to see a black haired woman staring down at them from the roof, a knife in her hand.

"Oh, yeah," Julian finally remembered. "Rigby said roof."

"Watch out!" The woman announced, pointing to the side of the RV.

Julian and Becky followed her gave to see a snarling zombie appear from the side. They had taken too long.

Julian shot the zombie in the head with his shotgun as more appeared behind it. Becky turned towards the front of thr RV to see zombies appear from there, too. Firing their guns at the approaching zombies, the two shuffled into the RV and shut the door behind them, Julian shooting one more zombie before the door shut.

"That was my last shell," Julian informed Becky, placing his shotgun onto the nearby table.

"We've got bigger problems!" Becky exclaimed, pressing herself against the door.

Julian joined her and pressed his body against the door just as the zombies tried pushing it in. They exclaimed as the zombies kept pressing against the door, doing their best to get inside.

"What do we do!?" Becky exclaimed, rightfully terrified.

"Pray!" Julian exclaimed, just as terrified.

After a few seconds of Becky considerijg to do exactly that, they suddenly herd something land on top of the RV. They followed the footsteps to the small closet like room in the center, where they heard something open.

"Over here!" The woman's voice announced. "Get in here and I can help you guys up!"

Julian and Becky looked into each other's eyes, confirming their own thoughts.

"You go first," Julian told Becky. "Once you're on the roof, you call me, then help her pull me up."

"You sure?" Becky asked.

"Yeah," Julian told her with about as much uncertainty as she expected in his voice. "It'll be easy. Just go, and then help me up."

Becky nodded her head and looked from the door she was pressing herself up against, and to the door of the closet. She counted down from three to herself and ran to the closet.

As Becky ran to the closet, Julian pressed his full weight against the center of the door, doing his best to keep it closed. It wasn't easy, just by himself. Zombies tried getting in, but he saved himself ammo by using the stun gun that Raleigh had showed them earlier. He exclaimed as he shut the door once again, pressing his back against it.

"Julian!" Becky's called from on top of the port on top of the closet. "Come on!"

Julian counted to himself in his head down from three and ran from the door across the RV. He knocked the table into the middle of the room to slow down the zombies. He entered the closet and closed it behind him, anxiously.

"Up here!" Becky's voice called from above him.

Julian looked up to see the open port. Becky and the black haired woman woman looking down at him.

"Jump up," the woman explained. "Use the walls as a climbing base. Walk up them."

"Screw the walls, climb up the door," Becky corrected her. "Press you feet against it to keep them out."

"Okay, yeah, that's a better idea," the woman admitted.

Julian jumped up while reaching with his hands. The woman caught him and he hung in the air. He pressed his feet against the door just as the zombies started pressing against it. Julian walked up the door and once he got close enough, the woman and Becky pulled him through the port and onto the roof of the RV. The three of them breathed in and out as the full impact of what they just went through hit them.

"Oh, shit," Becky exclaimed. "I left my rifle down there."

The three of them looked into the port to see the small closet packed tightly with zombies, reaching up towards them, desperate for a snack.

"I don't think you're getting that back," Julian told her.

"Not if you want to walk away without garnering a craving for brains," the woman elaborated.

"Thank you for your help," Becky sighed out, looking towards the woman. "I'm Becky, and this is Julian."

"Amy," the woman told them. "And what the hell were you guys doing here?"

"We're part of the rescue squad," Julian told her. "There'll be helicopter evacuation in two days, and we're finding people to help."

"Really?" Amy asked, one eyebrow raised.

"We're... kind of rookies," Becky admitted.

"I figured," Amy remarked, standing up. "Follow me."

Julian and Becky stood up and watched as Amy climbed off of the RV onto an awning above the door of the pawnshop. She climbed up the parts of the wall onto the roof. The two college students followed her, copying her every exact move onto the roof of the shop. Unfortunately, the awning broke after they climbed off of it, causing it to fall to the ground, smacking some zombies and limiting their chances for reaching the RV.

"Oops," Julian and Becky simultaneously commented as they looked onto the roof.

Three others were there, looking pretty disheveled. The survivors consisted of a latino woman, a white man with glasses and shot brown hair, and a pale man with a mohawk.

"That guy's gonna made Spider homesick," Becky remarked to Julian.

"Who the hell are these guys?" the latino woman asked.

"They're the rescue squad," Amy told her.

"No offense," the latino woman told Julian and Becky. "But you're doing a crappy job!"

"No shit," the dude in glasses remarked. "They can't be much older than I am."

"Hey, we're nineteen, dick!" Becky remarked, as it was obvious the man was in his mid twenties.

"Oh, that makes me feel so much better!" the man wearing glasses sarcastically remarked, looking up.

"Hey, at least they've got guns," the guy with a mohawk remarked, gesturing to Julian's Beretta and Becky's Colt.

"Yeah, and they don't leave our sides," Julian told Mohawk readily.

"All right," Mohawk said, raising his hands in defense.

"This is Rosita, Hugh, and Brian," Amy told Becky and Julian, gesturing to the latino woman, glasses guy, and mohawk guy respectively.

"So what's your guys' solution to this?" Hugh asked, raising an eyebrow at them.

Julian and Becky looked at each other, then looked back towards the survivors.

"We don't know," Julian admitted, shrugging his shoulders as Becky shook her head.

"We didn't exactly plan for the horde," Becky admitted.

"So we're just as trapped as we were before," Rosita remarked. "What the hell are we supposed to do?"

Julian and Becky looked at each other, knowing that Rigby would let the others know they need help. But they would just have to wait in the meantime.

"Anyone else wish Romero made Twilight of the Dead instead of Land of the Dead?" Hugh suddenly asked.

This caused most of the group to look at him curiously, eyebrows raised.

"It felt on point," Hugh admitted.

Julian and Becky sighed out, realizing how long they were going to have to wait.

* * *

Luckily they wouldn't have to wait for too long. Cody and Carter had reached the pizza parlor and taken out the zombies around the doors. It was especially easy with the mounted machine guns.

"Man, that was awesome!" Cody exclaimed as he and Carter walked towards each other.

"Yeah, that tends to happen when you use guns as big as this," Carter breathed out, smile on his face.

"Is this how you feel on a daily basis?" Cody excitedly asked. "Because I'm kind of envious of your guys' lives."

"You'd take that comment back after a day living my life," Carter told Cody, turning and walking towards the pizza parlor.

Cody was kind of curious about the tone of Carter's voice, but shrugged it off as he followed the man into the parlor. Carter opened the door and looked around, curiously. There were red marks along the walls and tables, and Carter internally hoped it was tomato sauce. Carter raised his Uzi as Cody raised his M16 as they walked through the parlor. They reached one table, and Carter threw up on the floor.

On the table was a pizza, but not a normal kind of pizza. The cheese was replaced with skin, cut up intestines served as toppings. Along with an eyeball. And a piece of a penis.

Cody had to stop himself from following Carter's example of throwing up on the floor as he regarded the horrific monstrosity pretending to be a pizza.

"What in the actual fuck?" Cody asked.

Humming from the nearby kitchen drew their attentions.

"I... think we're about to find out," Carter winced, gripping his Uzi.

The two walked past a counter and into the kitchen, where they found a man that was serving the chef stereotype, with the white apron and hat completing the goal. Red liquid and chunks of meat covered the front of the man's clothes, and the boys decided to pretend it was pizza sauce and chopped sausage.

"Ah!" the chef exclaimed at the sight of them. The name-tag on his chest indicated his hame was Albert. "You must be with 'Chef's Monthly.' I'll have it finished in just a minute."

Just the tone of the man's voice confirmed that he was crazy. And if that wasn't enough, him pulling a severed arm from under the counter and placing it on the cutting board. He lifted a cleaver and cut off the fingers, spraying more blood onto the cutting board.

"Uh..." Cody uncertainly said. "I think you might be confusing us with someone else."

"What!?" Albert exclaimed. "I jump through hoops to get you people to come down here to judge me, then you tell me you aren't even the right people!? You know how hard it is to get people to come to your restaurant in the conditions of _this _city!?"

Carter and Cody jumped back at the man's anger. But after a second, he appeared to calm down slightly.

"But it's no trouble," Albert assured them. He reached for the cleaver slowly. "Allow me to make you gentlemen a nice pizza for your troubles."

"Cody," Carter whispered to the taller man, looking into a back room a few feet behind them.

Cody followed Carter's gaze to the back room, where he saw a couple of people bound and gagged in the room. The fear was evident in their eyes even from their location.

"After all," Albert slowly started to say. "You're here to make you... dinner!"

Carter turned from the room and reached up just as Albert tried attacking them with his cleaver. He pushed back the man further into the kitchen and pushed him into a cupboard. Carter smacked Albert's wrist into the cupboard, causing him to drop the cleaver. He kneed Albert in the stomach, then threw him into the counter. Albert quickly recuperated and grabbed a chef's knife.

Albert charged at Carter just as Carter pulled out his machete. But then automatic gunfire flared, and Albert's chest burst open, spraying blood onto the floor. The man fell to the floor dead as Cody lowered his M16.

"That was my last mag," Cody informed Carter, slinging his rifle onto his shoulder.

"Go figure," Carter remarked, sliding his machete into it's sheath.

They went into the closet and freed the survivors, an Asian man named Steven, a black man named Eddie, a blonde woman named Melissa, and an older man named Roger. They explained the situation with the escape helicopter, and after what they just went through with Albert, they were more than happy to join. They had just packed the survivors into the armored cars when they got a report from Rigby.

"Julian and Becky are in trouble at the pawn shop," he informed them. "They're all right, but they're trapped on a roof."

"Well, let's go," Cody told Carter. "I'm not leaving my friends up there."

"We're on our way, Rigby," Carter informed the ginger.

They climbed into the driver's seats of their cars and drove off, being guided by Rigby, to find and help their friends.

* * *

"... And then we had to traverse through the crazy ass rave to find our friends," Julian continued telling their story to the people there.

"And by the end, one was already a zombie and the other was shot down by a helicopter minigun," Becky continued. "So we had to hide in the walls as the military launched a missle into the amphitheater."

"Us and the Russians survived," Julian told them. "And a secret faction recruited us for their zombie killing needs. They informed us of the outbreak here, and gave us the equipment to help evacuate people."

"We're holed up at a hotel complex until right before the military launches the nuke and blows this town to hell," Becky informed. "That way we get out as many people as we can while also figuring out what happened here."

"Whoa..." the survivors breathed out.

"This sounds like a better movie than Twilight of the Dead could ever have been," Hugh remarked.

"Please," Becky remarked. "If our story was made into a movie, it'd cover at least two. Maybe this one could be a third."

"What happened to us back in high school would probably have a subheading 'Necropolis,'" Julian assessed.

"Well, then what subheading would what happened to us last week have as a movie title?" Becky asked.

Julian thought about it for a second.

"Well, Jeremy kept insisting we would 'rave to the grave' with the Halloween rave," he remarked.

"'Rave to the Grave'?" Becky asked, tilting her head in thought. She raised an eyebrow. "It works."

"Sell the rights to Hollywood," Brian told them. "They'd make killer movies."

"I don't know," Julian admitted. "With the problems in the past with those nearly immortal zombies, people might get pissed that such different zombies exist in the same universe."

"At least, if there wasn't an explanation for why the zombies are different," Becky added. "I mean, if there's a change like that, there has to be an explanation, otherwise you're gonna piss a lot of people off."

"She's got a point," Amy admitted, pointing at Becky while looking at the other survivors.

They nodded their heads in agreement.

Suddenly, the sound of zombies being smacked and loud gunfire originated from the road. The survivors stood up and looked off of the roof and onto the road where the horde was. Two armored vehicles with guns on top were making their way down the road, with what looked like other survivors using the mounted guns.

The armored vehicles stopped next to the RV, and Cody and Carter climbed through the open ports on the roof. They raised their guns and shot at the zombies with their modified MP5s.

"Come on!" Cody announced as he and the civilian using the mounted machine gun to shoot at the zombies in front of the RV's door.

"We gotta go!" Carter exclaimed as he shot the zombies leaving the RV, while the civilian using the mounted machine gun kept zombies off of their backs.

"But you guys knocked the awning down with your fat asses," Brian remarked to Julian and Becky. "How do we get down?"

"It's ten feet," Julian remarked.

Julian and Becky exemplified their point by jumping off of the roof, landing on their backs. They exclaimed in pain, but got up and pulled out their handguns.

"They're right," they heard Amy announce. "Let's go!"

Amy followed their example and jumped off the roof, also swearing as shshe landed on her back. Rosita and Hugh followed her, along with a reluctant Brian.

"Let's go!" Becky exclaimed as Julian entered the RV and shot the remaining zombies.

The survivors struggled to stand up, which was ended up causing problems. The zombies in the pawn shop burst through the front windows and pounced on Rosita. She cried out in pain as the zombies bit at her neck and arms.

"Shoot me!" She exclaimed as Brian, Amy, and Hugh ran towards the RV.

Becky complied and shot the woman in the head before climbing into the RV.

"All right, let's go!" Carter announced as he climbed back into the port, back into the armored truck.

"Let's move along and get the fuck out of here!" Roger exclaimed as he stuck his left arm out a window to slap the car.

This turned out to be a mistake, as a zombie grabbed his arm and bit him on the wrist. He screamed in pain as he pulled his arm back into the car.

"Do you have any medical experience?" Carter asked Melissa as she climbed down from the open port.

"I was a nurse for three years," she admitted.

"Good," Carter remarked as he pulled out another, clean, machete.

Roger understood what he was doing and raised his left arm, ready. Carter slashed with his machete, and cut off the man's hand and half of his forearm with one swipe. He exclaimed in pain as the stump bled. Melissa threw the severed hand out the window and closed it before going to work.

"What's the problem?" Cody asked over earpiece in his armored vehicle.

"A man got bit," Carter explained. "I had to cut off his hand."

"That's rough," Julian admitted from the driver's seat of the RV. "But we gotta go!"

They complied and followed Julian as he drove down the street, through the horde. They kept driving and driving until that part of the city and the horde were out of sight.

"Can't go two hours without some kind of excitwment," Julian remarked to his friends via comlink.

"Definitely not," Becky agreed in the passangers seat over the comlink. "But look on the bright side."

"What bright side?" Cody asked, visible confusion on his, Carter, and Julian's faces.

"Now we have a big enough horde to attack the base," Becky pointed out, smile on her face.

"Hey, yeah," Julian realized.

"I'll call Raleigh and inform him of the good news," Carter told his friends.

He set the earpiece to the same frequency as Raleigh's and pressed the button.

"Raleigh, we've got good news," Carter announced.

But the only response he got was static.

"Raleigh?" Carter asked. Aftwr a few seconds, he started to get worried. "Guys, something's wrong, I can't hear Raleigh."

Curious and worried, the others set their earpieces to the same frequency and called out for Raleigh. After a few seconds, a voice that didn't belong to Raleigh answered.

"Help..."

But then the voice started screaming in pain, and a familiar call blared in all of their ears.

"BRAINS!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couldn't resist being a little meta near the end there


	9. The Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Julian and co. are saving survivors, back at the base, Raleigh and Spider face off against a new threat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trevor-ginger Man. Jaime-ginger Woman, Trevor's sister. Noah-black man. Randy-short haired brunette. Stanley-other black man. Valerie-black woman. Jason-blonde man. Bernard-older man with black hair. James Capshaw-black man. Marlene Capshaw-blonde woman married to James.
> 
> This is to help those few that are actually reading, and myself.

Not long after Julian and Becky and Cody and Carter left, Spider and Raleigh got together in the lobby. It was the first time since the two of them had finished resting in the town that they had free time. So, they decided to take advantage of it. By toking up.

"Since when does a member of a paramilitary faction take such interest in smoking illegal drugs?" Spider asked, blowing out smoke.

"Since a valued member of our group that we've had for years is a heavy stoner," Raleigh admitted. "He uses the healing herbs we have for kind of the wrong way. He smokes or does other drugs as much as he wants, and uses the herbs and potions to heal whatever damage they did. Hell, I'm pretty sure he's running a drug ring in Orlando, even though we live in New York!"

He burst out laughing as he finished the statement.

"And now I want to meet this guy," Spider remarked, taking in a big huff.

"That might be kind of difficult," Raleigh admitted.

"Why?" Spider asked.

Raleigh puffed out smoke.

"We're from another dimension," he admitted drowsily. "The only way to get there is with special portals, and mortals with no kind of enhanced powers whatsoever can't go through them without disintegrating. We're still trying to figure out how to stop that 'cause there's a lot of friends we have that we want to bring to our underground home. Our leaders look like characters from a Japanese video game. Our drug guy is named Shorty, and there's a version of you in our dimension. You guy's hang out so much that we've got a running pool that you guys are gay for each other."

Spider took in Raleigh's words with a bland look on his stoned face. While he knew Raleigh was only admitting so much because of the weed, that didn't mean it was any less surprising.

"That..." Spider slowly said, his bland tone remaining the entire time. "...is... awesome!"

The two broke into laughs, an obvious effect from the weed.

This was broken by Bernard approaching them, urgency on his face.

"We have a problem, gentlemen," he told them. "Military vehicles have approached the complex. They're about to park in front of the gates."

The two looked up at the man with surprise on their faces, eyes wide and everything. He then looked a little nostalgic.

"You know, you two right now remind me of me back when I was a kid," Bernard admitted. He crossed his arms and looked up in thought. "Ah, the sixties were a good time."

Lights then blared from the windows near the front doors, and Bernard ducked down. Raleigh new it was urgent, but also knew that he and Spider were still a little messed up from the weed. So, he slid his glove off of his robotic hand and turned a dial on it.

"What's that?" Spider asked.

"Strength adjustor," Raleigh explained.

He then breathed out before punching himself in the groin. He exclaimed in pain at the feeling, clutching his groin with his other hand.

"What exactly was the point of that?" Bernard asked, confused.

"Our stoner friend," Raleigh explained through gritted teeth. "This is the quick and easy way to break him out of his high. Sorry, Spider."

Spider didn't have time to register what happened before Raleigh hit him in the groin with his robotic fist as well. He exclaimed in pain as well while clutching his groin with his hands.

"You'll be fine," Raleigh told Spider as he coughed and set the strength back to normal.

He struggled a bit to stand up and grabbed one of his M4s. Raleigh ran towards the doors and ducked under the window. He creeped up and peeked out the window towards the fence. As Bernard mentioned, military cars were in front of the gate, with a large tanker like you see at shipyards between them. Multiple soldiers were around the gate, carrying assault rifles.

"Frodo," Raleigh whispered into his earpiece. "Julie. Rigby."

"We're one step ahead of you," Julie's voice appeared in his ear.

"We've got a shaded drone close to them with the microphone on," Frodo explained. "We're sending the feed to your phone."

Raleigh took out his smartphone and turned it on just as Spider crept up next to him. He carried his own rifle as he peeked out the window at the military soldiers. As Frodo promised, the video from the drone came up on Raleigh's phone. With the microphone on, he was able to hear their conversations.

"All right, where's the megaphone?" a voice that was a mixture of deep and scratchy asked.

The voice was coming from a soldier wearing full body black special ops gear. An M16 assault rifle with a laser point was slung across his back. He took off his helmet revealing a bald head with a scar across the left side of his face. The man looked to have been in his late 50's, early 60's. But despite his age, he still looked like the type who could kill you with his bare hands alone.

"Right here, sir," an obviously younger soldier with a higher pitched voice said, handing over a megaphone with his left hand.

"Thank you," the bald leader said as he took the megaphone.

He turned towards the apartment complex doors, at which Spider ducked down to make sure the guy didn't see him.

"Are you sure this is the place, Sarge?" the younger soldier on Raleigh's phone asked the bald man.

"We traced the equipment surging to a laptop in this exact building," the sergeant explained. "And besides, look." He pointed to something near the fence. "There's that minivan the front guards ruined."

Raleigh swore under his breath.

"We should have hidden that thing a lot better," he remarked.

"Hey, with how many of their men we've killed since we got here, I'm surprised they didn't find us sooner," Spider remarked.

"Attention!" the sergeant's deep and scratchy voice announced from outside, via the megaphone. "We know you're in there. We promise, all we want is to guide you to the nearest evacuation point. But if you resist, we will be forced to use lethal force."

Raleigh and Spider looked at each other, knowing that those people were lying about help. Spider looked up to see Trevor and Stanley walking towards them.

"Shouldn't we go with them?" Stanley asked. "I mean, if they're really offering to help..."

"They're lying," Raleigh told the two. "They're part of the army. They're the ones who started this outbreak in the first place."

The men's eyes widened at that revelation.

"All right!" the sergeant announced. "Have it your way!"

They peeked out the window to see the sergeant walking over to the big tank. A soldier on top of it pulled a lever, and the entrance of the panel fell down. Two soldiers caught it and warily moved in front of the open tank as they moved the panel to the side. The sergeant walked nonchalantly to the front of the tank and looked into the blackness inside.

Raleigh watched curiously on his phone as the sergeant waited for whatever was inside the tank. Then, slowly but surely, Raleigh could make out the image of a person walking out of the blackness. He couldn't make out the person's face, but he thought he could make out that the person was wearing light blue clothes, similar to what all the zombies at Necropolis wore. And it was then that Raleigh realized why this person was in a tank.

"That's a zombie," Raleigh assessed. "But why isn't it eating his head?"

"Are you ready, my pet?" the sergeant asked the zombie.

The zombie growled as it nodded its head.

"Good," the sergeant smiled. "You and your friends can eat everyone in there. But first..."

The soldier pulled a handgun out of his holster and pointed it into the drone's camera. Raleigh jumped in surprise at the sight of the sergeant shooting at him. The drone was disabled and fell to the ground. Raleigh and Spider peeked out of the window and watched as the sergeant moved out of the way of the tank. The zombie stepped into the light flared by the military vehicles, and Raleigh understood why it was kept in the dark.

This zombie was even uglier than the average zombie. There was dark red surrounding its eyes, probably signifying blood. The face was even more gnarled than a normal zombie, with more welts and marks around the face. There was no doubt that this zombie had had some specific thing done to it that made it look like this, which made Raleigh wonder what the army was even doing with zombies here in the first place.

His question was answered within seconds. The zombie grabbed at the fence, and started climbing up it. The zombie reached the top, moved aside the barbed wire, and jumped down, landing on its feet. The zombie stared at the doors that Raleigh and Spider were watching it from, the two of them watching in horror. The zombie bared its teeth and roared out in anger... and _hunger._

"Sweet mother of god," Spider remarked.

"Run." Raleigh calmly started. He looked towards Trevor, Stanley, and Bernard and started with much more urgency in his voice: _"Run!"_

The three men turned and ran up the stairs as Spider and Raleigh backed up and raised their rifles. The zombie bellowed "Brains!" as it ran to the door and opened them. They both fired at the zombie, hitting it in the head and chest with their shots. If only that was where the troubles ended.

They could see through the front windows that more of these fast zombies were running out of the tank, some of them climbing over the fence and running to the door. Others _leaped_ up onto the walls and started climbing up to the windows of rooms. Raleigh grabbed a duffle bag of guns and tossed it to Spider before grabbing the other one, both of them slinging the bags over their shoulders.

The two soldiers backed up just as the zombies ripped the doors open. They fired their rifles at the approaching zombies and exclaimed as the zombies even were flung forwards as they were shot.

"I think I preferred the immortal zombies!" Spider exclaimed as a zombie lunged at him and he shot at it.

"I'll hold you to that!" Raleigh remarked as he backed up into a different hallway.

They could hear scuffling on the other floors, and the sounds of people screaming. Clearly, these super zombies weren't okay enough with just using the front door.

"Come on, we have to help the survivors!" Raleigh exclaimed.

They backed up while firing at the approaching zombies.

"Get everyone onto the roof!" Raleigh snapped to Spider before he started running down the hallways to the rooms.

"Oh, fuck my life," Spider exclaimed as he ran up the stairs.

Spider had to stop in the staircase as Valerie ran past him, super zombie on her trail. The zombie grabbed her by the shoulders, and she exclaimed as it pushed her onto the ground. But before the zombie could follow her, Spider shot it in the back of the head, and it fell to the ground dead. Spider ran over to Valerie and leaned down to help her up.

"How many more are on this floor?" Spider asked.

"Six, maybe seven," Valerie explained. "I saw two chasing Bernard and Jason. And another one was..."

She was interrupted when a super zombie tackled Spider to the ground, causing him to roll and drop the bag and rifle. The zombie ended up on top of Spider, and pushed him against the ground. Spider held the zombie up, and it made an effort to bite his limbs. But then rifle fire originated and the zombie was knocked off of Spider. He looked up to see Valerie pointing his M4 where the zombie was. Spider then pulled his revolver out of its holster and pointed it at the zombie's head, as Valerie had only hit it in the back. The zombie roared as Spider shot it, blowing out its brains. Spider sighed out as he lowered his handgun.

"I hate zombies," he sighed out.

Spider then moved to get the bag. The zombie tackling him to the ground caused some of the equipment to fall out, which meant he had to pick it up and put it back in the bag.

"What is some of that stuff?" Valerie asked.

"Uh..." Spider said as he picked up a stun gun. "Stun gun..." He put it in the bag and picked up a box of bullets. "Some ammo..." He put it in the bag and picked up an open bag of earpieces. "Communicators..." He put it in the bag and picked up a PSP case. "Some kind of... gaming device..." He put that in the bag and picked up a belt of grenades. "Something really awesome!"

He stuffed the belt into the bag and slung it over his shoulder.

"Get to the roof!" Spider explained to Valerie. "Raleigh seems to think that'll be a good place for somethin'."

Valerie nodded her head and ran up the staircase. Spider slid another bullet into his revolver before running down the corridor.

Raleigh, meanwhile, managed to get the attention of two of the super zombies, leading them away from Randy and Noah. He ran down the hallway carrying his M4, getting the attention of another super zombie. Raleigh used rapid fire to shoot the zombie, and while he knew it was a waste of ammo, he was a little too frightened.

He reached the end of the hallway and turned, pointing his rifle at the zombies chasing him at the end of the hallway. When the gun clicked empty, he swore.

Knowing he had to fight, Raleigh held the gun by the barrel and used it to smack one super zombie in the face, before using it as a club to hit another one in the head. The one smacked in the face kneeled down a bit from the hit, but recovered and tried tackling Raleigh to the ground. It failed when Raleigh grabbed each of the zombie's wrists, and twirled it around so it was now in front of Raleigh, facing away from him. The other zombies was too busy lunging at Raleigh to notice its friend being manhandled like that. So, when it tried to bite Raleigh, it instead ended up biting its friend in the neck, causing the zombie to roar out in pain.

The super zombie took its teeth off of its friend and looked at it, embarrassed.

"You idiot!" the bitten zombie exclaimed.

It reached up and grabbed the other zombie's head, and turned it, cracking bone as it snapped its neck. Raleigh then grabbed the zombie by the shoulder with his left hand and stabbed it in the head with his right hand. The zombie screamed as it fell to the floor, dead.

Raleigh sighed out as he slid the knife back into its sheath. He leaned down and picked up his rifle with his right hand. When he stood back up, a super zombie was in front of him, screaming bloody murder. Without changing the blank look on his face, Raleigh pointed his custom handgun that he had sneakily pulled out that was in his left hand at the zombie's head and fired, the bullet flying through the zombie's head and causing blood and brains to fly out of its head.

"I hate zombies," Raleigh sighed out as he put his empty rifle into the duffle bag and pulled out a TEC-9 submachine gun.

Spider, meanwhile, had found James and Marlene Capshaw and already directed them up the stairs. He ran through the hallway and found Stanley once again. The man was running towards Spider with two zombies on his trail. Stanley past Spider, and the young punk fired his rifle at the zombies, killing them.

"Get to the roof!" Spider yelled to Stanley as he reloaded his rifle with his last magazine.

On the same floor, Jason was running with Bernard down the hall and had nearly reached the staircase. But then Jason slipped on blood on the floor and fell to the ground on his back, grunting as he landed.

"Raleigh, we've got good news," Carter's voice announced above him.

Jason looked up to see an earpiece that Spider didn't notice had fallen out of the baggie earlier on the floor.

"Raleigh?" Carter's voice asked as Jason reached for it.

Jason breathed in and out quickly as he picked up the earpiece and raised it to his mouth, pressing the button while the voices of the others called out Raleigh's name.

"Help..." He croaked out.

But then a super zombie lunged onto his back. It held him down and sunk its teeth into the man's shoulder, causing him to scream out in pain.

"BRAINS!" another super zombie screamed as it ran down the hallway with two of its friends.

The four zombies gathered around Jason and started to dig into him, causing his wails of pain to grow ever louder.

Raleigh exited the staircase with Noah behind him. He pulled a grenade out of his pin and pulled the pin. He tossed the grenade at the super zombies and it rolled underneath them. Both Raleigh and Noah stood back in the stairs while the grenade went off, killing the zombies and mercy killing Noah.

"Get to the roof," Raleigh told Stanley. "I've got to find the rest."

Stanley complied and ran up the stairs. Spider then ran up the stars and joined up with him.

"Who else is left?" Spider asked.

"I just helped Bernard and Noah up," Raleigh explained. "I think all that's left are Trevor and Jaime."

"Then let's go get them," Spider claimed with determination.

They ran up the stairs and entered the third floor. They carried their guns as they ran through the hallways. But then they turned the corner and found Trevor and Jaime. They were both pinned to the floor in the middle of the hall, with super zombies covering them, devouring them. Spider raised his rifle with his eyes wide, but Raleigh stopped him, his TEC-9 in his left hand.

"Save your ammo," he explained as he pulled a grenade launcher out of his bag with his right hand.

He pointed the launcher at the zombies and pulled the trigger, blowing them and Trevor and Jaime up, killing them all.

"Jesus," Spider said as he watched the zombie and people corpses burn.

"That's the problem with zombies," Raleigh explained, putting the launcher into his bag. "We can't save everyone. Sometimes we have to show mercy by ending their suffering... in the only way we can."

Spider sighed out, knowing the truth behind Raleigh's words. But then a super zombie charged through the fire of the corpses, making them go alert. Raleigh fired his TEC-9 at the zombie before more zombies charged through the fire. Spider and Raleigh turned towards the staircase, frightened, and ran towards it. They ran up the stairs as fast as they could and shut the door behind them. The remaining seven survivors were there, waiting for them, all looking very frightened.

"What exactly was the point of coming up here?" Spider asked as they walked towards the survivors. "Those super powered zombies will be able to reach us easily!"

"That's exactly why," Raleigh explained as he pulled an Uzi 9mm out of the bag. "If the zombies are coming for us, I'd rather they not be distracted by the people we're protecting on other floors."

Raleigh then pulled a SPAS-12 shotgun with a folded stock and put it into full auto mode. He tossed it to Spider, who caught it in his left hand.

"It helps to duel wield," Raleigh explained as he stood up, submachine guns in his hands. "But be careful with the shotgun. It's got a hell of a kickback."

Spider nodded his head as he and Raleigh stood ready, their guns raised at the door.

"If I die here today, I'm gonna kill you in Hell," Spider told Raleigh.

"Sounds reasonable," Raleigh admitted.

The door burst open, and the super zombies charged through. Spider immediately fired his shotgun at one, blowing up its head. But, like Raleigh promised, the kickback caused him to lower the gun. He instead raised his M4 and fired at the approaching zombies, blasting apart their heads into pieces. Raleigh fired his TEC-9 at the approaching zombies, taking out three of four with the many bullets. When that went empty, he used the Uzi to fire at the approaching undead. Three zombies were downed before three appeared over the ledge of the building.

Raleigh tossed aside the machine guns so he pulled out his modified handgun. A super zombie lunged at him, so he fired at its head, taking it out easily. Another one charged at Raleigh, but he ducked under the zombie's outstretched arms. He appeared behind the zombie and kicked it in its knee armpit. When the zombie fell to the ground, he shot it in the head. He stared at the zombie falling to the ground dead. When the other super zombie roared at the back of Raleigh's head and reached out for him. Raleigh just shot the super zombie in the head without even looking at it.

Spider, meanwhile, had fired the remaining shells in his shotgun at the approaching zombies, and emptied his rifle. He smacked one approaching super zombie with the butt of his rifle, then pulled out his knife. He stabbed the zombie right in the forehead, and tossed the zombie to the ground. Spider pulled his revolver and shot at another approaching super zombie in the head, causing it to fling forwards onto the ground dead, like the others. Spider shot and killed a super zombie that charged at the survivors, then Raleigh threw the corpse of one super zombie at the last one that was charging at the people. The dead super zombie landed on the super zombie, pinning it to the ground, allowing Spider to fire at it in the head easily.

"Is that all of them?" Spider asked Raleigh.

"Maybe all the ones here," Raleigh admitted.

The survivors had just started to walk towards the two when another super zombie appeared over the closest ledge. It lunged at James Capshaw and tackled him to the ground. James held the zombie up with his left hand grabbing its neck. But then the zombie grabbed his wrist and bit his hand, causing him to cry out in pain. Randy and Bernard grabbed the super zombie and threw it on the ground, giving Spider the chance to shoot it in the head.

Marlene exclaimed worriedly as she leaned down to her husband, worried for him. James himself was wincing in pain as he observed his hand.

"We'll have to sever his hand to stop the infection," Raleigh said as he reached into his duffle bag and pulled out a machete. "Sorry, James, but it's gonna hurt like a bitch."

"You and your..." James started to say before he paused.

All of a sudden, James convulsed, twitching to the left, then the right. The survivors could only watch in confusion as James convulsed. His wife was worried for him.

"James?" Marlene asked.

James convulsed for a few more seconds before he fell back to the ground, eyes closed. They then opened, and were much paler, with a red outline around them.

Zombie James lunged onto his wife and bit her neck as she screamed out in pain. Raleigh pointed his modified handgun and fired until it was empty, mercy killing both Marlene and James. Everyone just breathed in and out, shocked and confused.

"Raleigh," Spider said, looking at the scientist. "When you showed us that video of Necropolis, it took Zeke about thirty minutes to an hour to turn after he got bit. That zombie bit James and he turned in, like, twenty seconds. How is this possible?"

Raleigh looked down at the corpse of James and breathed in and out. He was just as shocked as Spider, but he didn't have an answer. And he _hated_ not having the answer.

Before anyone could do anything else, the door opened again, and a super zombie ran out and regarded the survivors.

"You killed my friends!" the zombie bellowed. "Give me your brains!"

Raleigh and Spider raised their handguns, but they clicked empty. Raleigh swore as he grabbed the machete as the super zombie charged at them. But then gunfire originated from the door, and the zombie fell dead to the ground. The survivors looked at the door to see Cody there, his modified MP5 raised. He walked onto the roof with Carter, Becky, and Julian behind him.

"What the hell happened?" Julian asked as he looked, slightly scared, at the dead super zombies.

"That's what we're about to find out," Raleigh said.

They explained as quickly as they could as they cleaned up the dead super zombies and helped the survivors around. Raleigh and Cody managed to get the dead super zombie with Spider's knife in its head, as it had an intact enough skull. They got it on a table in an apartment, and the rest of the team gathered around, wanting to be there when Raleigh figured it out. Raleigh and Cody took samples of flesh, blood, and brain, and put them in petri dishes they brought for examination. They then grabbed samples of the same materials from a dead normal zombie to compare the results.

They used the equipment they had brought to scan all the samples, as the rest of the team watched, interested.

"What do you think this could be?" Julian finally asked.

"Hard to say," Raleigh admitted. "There isn't always one specific theory for these kinds of..."

He stopped when he realized something in the results. Raleigh looked up at Cody and the two shared the same look of recognition in their eyes.

"You seeing this?" Cody asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," Raleigh agreed as he looked through the scope at the blood.

"What is it?" Becky asked.

"We're picking up traces of epinephrine, cholesterol, cortisol, and fused hydrocarbon rings," Cody explained. "All mixed together in a way that they shouldn't be."

"Uh..." Julian said, as he and his teammates were confused. "Please speak English."

"That is English," Raleigh remarked. "It's adrenaline and steroids. Hell, it's adrenaline _on_ steroids. They've mixed together with the Tryoxin and caused a mutation. This changed the zombies. It didn't just make them a hell of a lot uglier, but it improved them. It made them faster, stronger... a lot harder to kill."

"There's something else," Cody pointed out.

Raleigh and the others turned towards Cody, who had used forceps to open up the super zombie's head even further. He grabbed a pair of clamps and reached into the center of the zombie's brain. The team winced as the clamps pushed through brain, and pulled something out. That something was a small piece of metal with glowing blue lights on it. Raleigh's eyes widened, as he recognized the piece of equipment.

"Put it on the dish," he said as he raised up an empty petri dish.

"Uh, why?" Cody asked as he set the piece down in the dish.

"Because I want to see if I'm right about this," Raleigh said as he put down the device and picked up his phone.

Raleigh took a picture of the piece of equipment and ran it through the scanner app. After a few seconds, the results presented themselves to him.

"I knew it!" Raleigh exclaimed. He looked up at his friends. "This a controller device. When these things are implanted in someone or something's head, then they'll follow the orders of a specific, chosen person." He looked from the head, to forwards. "...It's fucking genius."

He chuckled slightly as he looked at the team, making them think he went a little mad.

"This is it," Raleigh explained. "This is why Hybra Tech was doing experiments with zombies. Hybra Tech was out for world domination, and the government and army knew that they were trouble, so they quarantined themselves from the company. So in response, your uncle went after the Tryoxin as part of their quest to stop the army with zombies from stopping them. They knew the army was making these... super zombies, so they needed a way to combat them. And what better way to combat them than to fight them with the very weapon they created? Your parents were the first prototypes, they planned to stuff all of those zombies into exosuits like that, specifically to fight these guys because with how powerful these zombies are, they could have taken out Hybra's forces easily."

"You know, it's stuff like this that makes me really glad you never became a mad scientist," Carter commented.

"Ditto," Raleigh commented. "Anyway, from the looks of it, the person they listen to is the bald sergeant with a scar on his face. And since he sent these super zombies in here to eat us, I don't think he's out to make friends."

"So we kill that guy, and the super zombies won't have anyone to listen to anymore," Spider assessed.

"Exactly," Raleigh nodded his head. "He dies, and the super zombies won't have anyone to give them orders. Either they'll go on a rampage and try to kill everyone they see, including the army pricks, or they'll become docile and weak, not observant. To be honest, either possibility is great."

Julian just remained blank faced and walked towards the dead super zombie on the table. He leaned forwards and placed his hands on the table. Everyone there looked at him sympathetically, not being able to tell the emotions running through his head. He shut his eyes.

"My parents are dead," Julian said. "They were killed and turned into zombies, joined into a group of zombies that killed a bunch of my friends and my little brother. And all because a paramilitary faction was trying to combat these bastards?"

Raleigh could feel the rage building up in the younger man's voice. Becky moved to console them, but Carter stopped her. Carter had seen this before in his friends, and he knew the only way to help Julian was to let whatever was about to happen happen.

Julian opened his eyes, and looked down at the super zombie with a kind of rage that Raleigh had never seen in the center-parted boy before. He stepped back and let Julian pull out his knife. Julian gritted his teeth and exclaimed as he stabbed the zombie in the heart. He grunted some more as he stabbed the zombie in the center of the chest, the neck, and once again in the chest.

"It's because of you!" Julian screamed as he kept stabbing the zombie. "They're dead! They died in the most horrific ways possible!"

His voice cracked a bit as he screamed "Because of you!"

Tears had started to stream out of Julian's eyes as he kept stabbing the zombie. He grunted as he stabbed it one last time in the head. He then let one leg go limp and fall onto the floor. Julian covered his face with his hands. He brushed his hair out of his face as he cried. He leaned back against the table leg and let the tears fall down his cheeks.

Becky and Cody decided it was time and kneeled down to their friend. Becky put her arms around Julian, and he wrapped his around hers while crying into her shoulder. Cody wrapped his arms around his friends, and they just stayed there, holding each other.

After a few seconds like that, they heard the sound of sniffling.

"I'm all right," Julian sniffed, causing Becky and Cody to slowly release their arms from him. "I'm... I'm good."

"You sure?" Becky asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Julian sniffed, looking up at his friends. "I've had two years of being sad about it, and they've had two years of getting away with it." He looked up at Raleigh. "How do we get our horde to attack the base?"

"So we're going with that plan?" Carter asked.

"They're the reason my family is dead," Julian snapped, angrily. "I am _not _going to let them keep going, keep doing this to people. I will kill every last zombie myself if that's what it takes. Now what's the plan?"

Julian looked at Raleigh to get the answer he wanted. Raleigh made eye contact with Carter, who nodded his head in agreement. He then looked back at Julian.

"We're gonna need help," Raleigh admitted. "Which is why we called in someone who can do exactly that."

Raleigh walked over to a nearby closet, which had weird noises coming from inside, like rushing wind. He stood next to it with his arms crossed. After a second, the winds died down. The door was knocked on from the other side.

"Come on in," Raleigh announced, looking from his team to the door. "We're decent."

The door opened, and there was a short haired ginger man with his bangs brushed to the left side. He didn't look that much older that Julian, Cody, and Becky. He was wearing a suit that looked like it belonged to a waiter, but he wore sneakers. A duffle bag was slung along his right shoulder, and a large golden shurikan was on his back. A belt was around his waist with a holster holding a .45 Longslide handgun with a laser sighting.

"Good to have you here," Raleigh told the man, shaking his hand.

"Good to be here," the ginger man said. "I have always wanted to kill zombies."

"Right," Raleigh said, turning towards the rest of his team. "Everyone, this is Logan Morgan. He used to be a demolitions expert for the US army where we come from."

"Now I'm sort of freelance," Logan said with a cocky smile as he walked forwards.

"He thinks he's a badass," Carter told the trainees. "But he's not."

Spider and Becky chuckled at that, while Logan looked offended.

"Hey," Logan snapped. "I once crammed 20 pounds of C4 in the toilet of a base of Russian terrorists. Once one of them flushed the toilet, the whole place went BOOM!"

He raised his arms with an excited smile on his face, while Carter just looked annoyed.

"You were 18," Carter told him. "Mack told us that story. You've been telling it for four years. That's the _only _successful demolitions story you have, man. It gets annoying."

"Whatever," Logan said, as he grabbed the straps of the bag. "Besides, according to Raleigh, this is exactly why I'm here."

He put the bag on the table and opened it. The trainees looked inside and were surprised. The bag was full of C4, hand grenades, pipe bombs, an Uzi, and many different other kinds of explosives.

"Holy shit!" Becky exclaimed, surprised.

"We had him prepared for if you guys found a horde," Raleigh explained. "With all the explosives he has, we'll be able to cause a good enough distraction for the military pricks."

"So how do we do this?" Julian asked.

"We'll lead the horde there with that Ducati and the motorcycle," Raleigh explained. They're distracted at the front gate while we blow a hole into the side of their wall. We sneak in and get the evidence we need to incriminate them for what happened here, and the creation of these super zombies."

"All right," Cody said. "Sounds like a plan."

"When do we do this, though?" Spider asked. "I mean, there should be a specific time when we should do this, right? And if we do it during the day, they'll just have a clearer shot of the corpses."

"Which is why we have to do it at night," Raleigh explained. "Give them a harder shot. But it's too late to do it right now. We only have a few hours of nighttime left, so we won't have enough time to lure the dead there _and_ break in and get the information."

"Good plan," Julian remarked, nodding his head. "How much time do we have left?"

Raleigh checked his phone.

"It's 2:47 AM," he announced. "Less than 46 hours left. 46 hours to save as many people as we can and break into the military base."

"Sounds like a plan," Becky assessed. "We'll lead all the zombies to the gate, blow up a side wall, and sneak in while they're distracted."

"It's a good plan," Raleigh agreed. "If you want to only distract them for two seconds."

"What?" Becky asked.

"Becky, we scanned the bullets that were shot into the minivan," Raleigh explained. "They belonged to a .50 calibre machine gun. Those things can blow up an entire head with a single shot. And from the sound of it, there's not just one. If we take the entire horde you guys found, they'll tear it apart in just a few minutes. So, the horde'll be following us inside."

"Uh, what exactly do you mean?" Julian asked, confused.

The smile on Raleigh's face made everyone really glad that he wasn't a mad scientist.

"Trust me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And in true Dead Rising style:  
Jason Is Dead  
Trevor Is Dead  
Jaime Is Dead  
James Is Dead  
Marlene Is Dead


	10. Back Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in Florida, the remaining group goes through training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a filler because I legitimately did not want to use multiple chapters of them going through what's essentially Dead Rising, which is an admittedly better story than this. So, I figured, why the hell not?

Jenny sighed out as she sat up in bed. She stretched a bit as a small bit of preparation for today's training. She looked to the clock on the nightstand on the right of her bed she was supposed to share with Julian and checked the time.

7:30 AM.

Two days left.

Forty and a half more hours until the army would blow up Elswood, killing everyone there. And if he wasn't careful, her boyfriend would go out with them.

Jenny sighed out as she pushed aside the comforter and stood up. She picked up the cell phone Julie gave her and considered calling Julian once again. Once again, she decided against it and instead walked to the door. For all she knew, he was in the middle of sneaking around a bunch of zombies and calling him would only get him killed. And that was the last thing she wanted to do.

Jenny exited her bedroom and walked down the hallway into the kitchen. Doc Mandel was at the stove with Lucy Wilson. He was showing her how to make scrambled eggs with a spatula. At the same time, John Reynolds was stacking waffles on a big plate. Casey, Jessie, and Tom were sitting at the counter, Casey eating the remains of a waffle.

"Man, you guys are good at preparing breakfast," Jenny commented.

"Something you have to prepare for when you become a parent," John admitted. "I wasn't there much for my boy, but I always did my best to make sure he had a good breakfast."

"Whatever the case, keep the flapjacks coming," Casey commented, pushing forwards an empty plate.

"Hey, save some for the rest of us!" Jessie remarked, holding out a plate of his own. "Could I get some?"

"Sure thing, son," John said, picking up two waffles with a spatula and placing them on the young boy's plate.

"Save some room for eggs!" Doc announced happily.

"I'm starting to like you guys," Jenny decided, announcing her arrival as she picked up a plate.

"Hey," Casey said, looking towards her. "How you holding up?"

"What do you mean?" Jenny asked, confused.

"Julian's out there," Tom said. "He's fighting off all kinds of crazy abominations in that city, and you're stuck here waiting for him. You're like the soldier's wife who has to stay home wait for him to come back."

"That actually sounds like an accurate description," Jessie chuckled.

"Maybe," Jenny admitted. "But I think you guys are getting ahead of yourselves. We've only been together for a month or two."

"Yeah, but you guys survived a zombie outbreak together, alive," Casey commented. "If that's not romance, I don't know what is."

John Reynolds chuckled a bit.

"Sounds like me and my wife," he chuckled as he offered the waffle plate to Jenny. "Man, I miss her every day."

"Well, whatever the case," Jenny said as she picked up a couple of waffles and put them on her plate with a fork. "I just hope he's okay. I can't even call him 'cause I don't know what that'll do while he's in the city. I just wish there was an easy solution to this."

"There might be," Rigby announced as he and Julie walked into the kitchen.

"What do you mean?" Jenny asked.

"The communication loop," Julie explained. "We're connected directly to their earpieces. If you want, we can give you a go at it and talk to him once he's got a free moment."

"That, that would be nice," Jenny admitted. "But what's he doing now?"

"Sleeping," Rigby told her. "He found out why those Hybra pricks made those zombies at Necropolis in the first place, and the full weight of the day he had just been through impacted on him. He collapsed as soon as he sat on a bed."

"What do you mean 'why they made the zombies in the first place'?" Jessie asked. "I thought Julian's asshat uncle explained why at Necropolis. He wanted world domination."

"Yeah," Rigby agreed. "But they found out why Hybra figured that putting zombies in exo-suits was the solution."

He pulled an apple out of the bowl of fruit on the table and took a bite.

"Finish breakfast and prepare for the day," Rigby told them. "And we'll explain everything in the conference room."

So, they did just that. Jenny went and got a shower and dressed up in jeans and a short sleeved light blue shirt. She went into the conference room to find the others there waiting, all dressed in more casual clothing than she expected. Casey even had her faux hawk down to just bangs brushed to the side. Jenny sat at the table between Chuck and Aldo Serra, who still insisted on wearing a suit with Gino.

"We got the transmission last night from Raleigh and the team," Rigby announced as he pointed the remote at the large flat screen TV. "Just a heads-up, this stuff isn't exactly gonna be pretty."

On the screen came images from invisible drones that they had monitoring the mayhem from the night before, along with the footage from video cameras that were in the hotel complex. They saw in clear picture, the super zombies. How fast and agile they were. How they pressed down their victims and devoured them with reckless abandon. How when James Capshaw got bit, he turned within twenty seconds.

"Damn!" Jenny exclaimed. "That's like 28 Days Later."

"It's a movie from two or three years ago," Frodo explained to the people not of this time. "Super fast zombies that ran after people."

They nodded their heads in understanding.

"The zombies back in Kentucky," Chuck pointed out. "They could run. But not to this degree. They were a little too decomposed, so they weren't that fast."

"Same with ours," Jessie agreed. "They could run, but not to the level of these guys."

"Raleigh informed us late last night," Frodo explained. "The army made these guys with a bad combination of adrenaline on steroids. They were why Hybra wanted to stuff their dead into suits. Poetic justice, fight the army with the very weapons they created. The suited zombies take out the super zombies, clear their way to world domination. And let us tell you, when Julian found out _that's_ why Hybra did made the zombies, and subsequently stuffed his dead parents into the suits, he was _not _happy."

"Oh, my god," Jenny said softly.

"Is he all right?" Aldo asked.

"Well, after a rightful amount of crying, and repeatedly stabbing a dead super zombie," Julie said. "He's now a lot more determined to blow up a military base and feed the pricks to zombies."

"I miss all the good stuff," a voice announced.

Their attention was drawn to the front doors. A young guy who looked about nineteen years old was standing there with his arms crossed. His short dark hair was brushed to the right side, giving him sort of an edgy look. He wore a blue jacket with black on the chest and black jeans. Underneath was the jacket was a plain white T shirt, and he wore blue and black Nike sneakers. A brown satchel hung at his waist with the strap going over one shoulder, across his chest. At his waist hung a sheath containing a katana that shimmered in and out of existence.

"'All the good stuff'?" Rigby asked. "You were there on the front lines when we had to take out an entire city of zombies, mutants, and aliens with just our melee weapons. If anyone misses the good stuff, it's these two."

He gestured to Frodo and Julie.

"_Anyway_," Julie remarked, annoyed. "Everyone, this is Mordechai Eclipse. One of the best shots we've got. He's here to help with firearm training."

"Not sure we all need firearm training," Lucy remarked. "I'm already a pretty good shot."

"Maybe," Mordechai admitted as he placed his satchel on the table. "But do you know how to use one of these?"

He pulled a G36 rifle with a grenade launcher added underneath the muzzle out of his satchel, surprising a few people, as the bag looked only big enough to contain a laptop. Mordechai put the rifle back in the bag.

"Or one of these?" Mordechai asked, pulling out a grenade launcher.

People were surprised as Mordechai put the launcher back in the bag.

"Or one of these?" Mordechai asked, reaching into the bag with both hands.

With visible struggle, Mordechai pulled a large rocket launcher that needed to be lifted with both hands out of the bag. He showed it off before he stuffed it back in the satchel.

"This, though, is my personal favorite," Mordechai announced, reaching into the bag once again.

He pulled out a standard assault rifle with a few fancy attachments.

"M4A2 assault rifle," Mordechai explained. "Magazine fitted to hold thirty rounds, fire rate can be one at a time or the whole thing at once if you're good at squeezing the trigger, and depending on the setting. Single shot can go maybe a thousand feet without losing momentum. The scope on top came from a hunting rifle. It's more along the lines of looking cool, cause I don't need it. Outfitted with a silencer with a laser point to quiet the shots. And of course, the grenade launcher for taking out the big guys. Or, if you want to blow up a single person."

"Who would you need to hate enough to blow up with a grenade?" Chuck asked, a little surprised by how nonchalantly Mordechai pointed that out.

"You'd be surprised," Mordechai remarked.

"You look like that super edgy guy that everybody can't help but love," Casey commented.

"I get that a lot," Mordechai admitted.

"Because that sums up pretty much your entire existence in the group," Rigby pointed out. "I mean, Kyle did describe it. Ripped your shirt off with everyone there and everything."

"How's that look?" Casey asked, suddenly excited.

"You're not gonna find out," Mordechai decided, putting his rifle into his satchel. "Now let's go."

The group followed Mordechai and Rigby through the hallways until they exited into the backyard. They walked across the field and past the pool until they reached a specific empty path, many more grassy fields in any direction.

"All right!" Mordechai announced. "This area was chosen because of all the open fields. People hear gunfire, they'll just assume it came from one of the many places around."

"Luckily we're not too close to the equator to miss snow during winter," Frodo commented. "I have a feeling this place blanketed in snow would be a pretty sight."

"Is that important?" Mordechai asked with a stern voice, making Frodo look down in slight embarrassment.

"What exactly are we going to be shooting at?" Burt Wilson asked.

Julie came into view with the crate on wheels they had brought. She took the tarp off to reveal powered down drones and target papers.

"These specific drones are bulletproof," Rigby explained. "The ones we use in the town are made out of basic metal we use for most things, but these are made out of cythenium, one of the strongest metals where we come from. You'd have to smack it with a sledgehammer all day to dent it."

"Why not make all the drones out of it?" Jenny asked.

"Cythenium isn't cheap," Rigby admitted. "Hell, we need an alien that can control matter just to make these drones."

Rigby attached a target to the front of one drone and turned it on. The drone flew down the field and pointed the target at them.

"Now, from the sounds of it," Mordechai announced to the rookies. "The guys in charge here expect you all to become as good at shooting at me. To be honest..."

He pulled a Beretta 92F out of his satchel with his left hand and aimed it at the drone. He fired the gun three times. All of the shots hit the center of the target, getting 50 points for each shot. Mordechai just looked at the surprised trainees like that was nothing.

"And I'm right handed," Mordechai remarked, sliding the gun back into his bag.

He then started pulling out handguns and handing them to people. Chuck got a Desert Eagle, Casey got a Ruger 57, Burt got a long barreled revolver, Doc Mandel got a five shot revolver, Jessie got a Colt M1911, Lucy got another Colt M1911, Tom got a Beretta, Jenny got a Glock 30, John Reynolds got a Beretta, and Gino and Aldo both got Glock 22's.

"Remember, they're not toys," Mordechai explained to the lesser experienced shooters. "They're dangerous weapons that can kill things. Be sharp... and try not to shoot yourselves in the foot."

"Please," John said, annoyed. "Even if they're trainees, I highly doubt someone here will shoot themself in the foot."

A shot fired, and the group turned towards Gino, who was hopping up and down.

"Ah, my foot!" Gino exclaimed.

"You were saying?" Mordechai asked John.

"My friend, even the most experienced of shooters can make stupid mistakes," Aldo informed John.

"That apparently once happened to our friend, Carl," Julie explained. "Now we say it to everyone we give a gun to."

"Smart method," John admitted.

"Keep the line in the front and the line in the back aligned as you fire," Mordechai instructed. "And breathe out as you squeeze the trigger to fire. Oh, and of course, be careful of the recoil."

"What's recoil?" Chuck asked as he pointed the Desert Eagle they gave him at a target.

He then pulled the trigger. But as the Desert Eagle was pretty powerful, the recoil shot it up very high, making the gun smack him in the forehead. Chuck then proceeded to fall back onto the ground.

"_That's_ the recoil," Mordechai told him.

"That exact same thing happened the first time Carl shot a Desert Eagle," Rigby remarked. He turned towards his friends. "Is it me or is history repeating itself to us a lot?"

"Yeah, a bit," Julie agreed as Frodo nodded his head.

"Mm-hmm," Mordechai said.

"Hm," Rigby countered, facing the trainees.

"Hm," Mordechai countered.

"Hm."

"Hm."

"Hm-hm."

"Hm. Hm. Hm."

Julie and Frodo raised their eyebrows at the two. They never understood why these two were constantly did stuff like this at the most random moments.

Instead, they just pretended that never happened and let Mordechai go back to shooting class. Most of the others were knocked onto their butts or just thrown back a bit. But no one else got hit in the face and fell unconscious. Not everyone got perfect scores every time they shot their gun. Some were just lucky to at least hit the targets.

Eventually, all of the trainees used up all of the ammo in the clips supplied to them. A couple of black eyes were given to those that couldn't get used to the recoil yet, but that was to be expected.

They moved on from sidearms to the bigger stuff. Automatic weapons, submachine guns, assault rifles, regular rifles, and shotguns. The simplest ones were the rifles and submachine guns. Not as much kickback. The shotgun caused more than a few people to fall on their butts. Mordechai got a good laugh out of that one.

It was unanimously decided (by everyone but him) that Jessie would never use a shotgun. If the boy fell on to the ground due to a too powerful handgun, they didn't even want to know what a shotgun would do to the kid.

"It'll take me forever to get used to that kickback," Jenny commented as she handed back the M16 assault rifle she was using.

"Join the club, sister," Julie remarked as she took the rifle.

"All right, then," Mordechai announced, taking back the guns. "You guys are adequate with firearms now. With a bit more training, I think we might be able to get you all up to average. But right now..."

He pulled a greenish rolled up pouch out of his bag and set it on the ground. Unrolling the pouch on the ground revealed the various other weapons. From left to right, a bowie knife, a hatchet, a longer knife, a hammer, a machete, a crowbar, and an axe.

"Now for the _really_ fun stuff," Mordechai announced, also taking a spear out of his bag.

They spent the rest of the day teaching the trainees exactly how they were supposed to use these weapons while fighting. The knives were the easiest since you could do anything with those, but they had a little while making sure the less experienced could get the right grip positions for the axe and the machete, for maximum impact. The training took them past lunch and well into the first hours of the night, the field being lit up by lanterns set up across the grass.

"All right," Mordechai announced to the tired trainees. "I think you all will do well with hand to hand weapons for now. Here's hoping none of you end up in another outbreak any time soon, eh?"

"Yeah, I'd rather not mess with zombies again anytime soon," Chuck agreed, nodding his head slightly.

"Especially not a 245," Jessie remarked. "One adventure against those jerk-offs was enough. I'd rather a T-5."

"Yep," John announced, nodding his head as he looked down at the boy. "You're definitely a pre-teen."

The group chuckled at that, with even Mordechai sparing a slight smile.

"He's an obnoxious little shit," Lucy laughed, ruffling Jessie's hair. "But he's my brother, so I've gotta stand him."

"Likewise," Jessie remarked as the group laughed once again.

The many residents of the compound re-entered said place and settled down in the dining room and ate dinner. They shared a few more funny stories together, including one of Tom and a misadventure in High School involving an oven spewing fire right in his face.

"I didn't have eyebrows for four months!" he remarked.

"There's a sight that'd be hard to unsee," Casey remarked, eliciting laughs all around.

During the fun times, they didn't notice it as Mordechai slipped out of view and completely disappeared from the compound, no doubt going back home.

Some time after dinner, Jenny went into the computer room to find Julie working at the desk, providing cover for the group in Elswood. Julie looked up at Jenny's arrival and pulled out another rolling chair, which her blonde counterpart accepted.

"How's thing's going?" Jenny asked, observing the nearest of the many monitors with Julie.

"The drones are all waiting at the complex with them," Julie informed her. "They're gonna change to manual transmission from a controller in either Raleigh's or Carter's smartphone. They'll help keep the horde in line since a lot of our allies are a little too busy to help provide the backup they'll need. They're getting everything ready for the attack on the military base."

"What about Julian?" Jenny asked, finally caving and asking the most pertinent question on her mind.

"He's resting up," Julie informed her, switching one monitor to show Julian asleep on a bed in a random apartment room, his equipment on a nearby desk. "This feed is from his earpiece. Our science guys went all out with those things for just in case scenarios," she explained to Jenny's confused expression. "They're gonna set out at 11:30 tonight. That'll be around half past midnight our time. So, they're gonna have to be nice and rested. Who knows how long they're gonna be up?"

"I can wait," Jenny decided.

"You sure?" Julie asked. "They don't go out for another three hours. Even _I_ have trouble staying up that late when I don't need to. Hell, sometimes when I need to."

"I'm sure," Jenny said with a determined tone, crossing her arms and staring at one monitor."

"All right," Julie relented.

A full minute of silence passed between them.

"This is boring," Jenny announced.

"Welcome to the world of the controllers," Julie commented.

"You got anything to pass the time?" Jenny asked.

"There's this movie I haven't seen yet," Julie announced. "My brothers promise that it's worth the watch."

"Pull it up," Jenny told her.

"You got it," Julie remarked, turning powering up the closest monitor.

She clacked a few keys and pulled up the movie in question.

"'Cabin in the Woods'?" Jenny asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I've never heard of this."

"Out of your time," Julie commented with a slight shrug of the shoulders.

"This says it came out in 2012," Jenny announced, confused. "But... it's 2006."

"_Way _out of your time," Julie chuckled.

"Are you guys from the future?" Jenny asked, slightly wide eyed.

"Sort of," Julie admitted, starting the movie.

They watched the movie together, laughing at some scenes and wincing at others at the sight of the brutal deaths. Unfortunately, they didn't realize how late it was getting until they started getting drowsy. Around the time the guy got killed by the unicorn, the two fell asleep right in their chairs.

Fall Out Boy's "Dance, Dance" is what woke them up, making the two of them jump slightly.

"Oh, man," Jenny croaked out, rubbing her sore head. "What time is it?"

Julie checked the time on the computer, and her eyes widened.

"Oh, shit!" she exclaimed. "It's 4:27!"

"Shit!" Jenny whined, knowing she missed her chance to talk to Julian before they had to head out. She then realized the Fall Out Boy song was still playing. "Wait, where's that coming from?"

Julie looked around until she saw her own smartphone on the floor. She reached down and picked it up, checking the Caller ID to see it was Raleigh. With her eyebrows furrowed in curiosity, she checked the monitors to see she couldn't see anything from Raleigh's, Carters, or any of the trainees' points of view.

"What the hell?" she muttered.

Her eyebrows still furrowed, Julie hit the answer button and held her phone to her ear.

"Raleigh?" Julie asked. "Why are you calling me when you've got the earpieces?"

She didn't miss the quick breathing coming from the phone.

"Julie!" Raleigh announced. "You've got to send out the fortified planes to the complex _right now__!_ You gotta get all the people out."

"Raleigh, why?" Julie asked, confused. "The plan was to start the evacuation an hour before they fired the bomb. Why-?"

"There isn't time to explain!" Raleigh shouted, which even Jenny heard. The sound of gunfire in the background was painfully obvious to Julie. "Shit! Julie, things are being moved up. Get them the hell out of there, _now!_ I gotta go!"

She heard a bit more gunfire before the line cut off. She lowered her phone and looked at it with widened eyes, which lowered down to furrowed eyebrows.

"What's going on?" Jenny asked.

Julie looked up at her.

"Let's just say you're gonna be reunited with Julian sooner than you expected."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I'll admit, this is a spin off for the Unlimited series, just way down the line in the Unlimited's storyline. These people in charge are members that get introduced later on in the series and its spin offs. And most of the characters come from different movies or TV shows. Meaning yes, Mordechai and Rigby are human versions of THAT Mordechai and Rigby. Hopefully I'll get there one day in the Unlimited series. Cause even if it's kind of basic at the moment, I have a whole dang timeline for the series and its two spin offs, all three being pretty interesting, if I do say so myself


	11. Rebuttal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group retaliates on the military base that attacked them. There, they learn a few key facts about the outbreak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few mean things happen in this chapter, but it's all essential. Uncle Charles reappears, in a way

Julian slowly stretched out his arms and legs as he woke up, knowing what was going to be happening soon. Checking his watch for time confirmed his suspicions. 11:04. They were planning on heading out and leading the horde to the military base at 11:30. If everything went according to plan, they would get the horde there around half past midnight, giving them the right distraction so they could sneak inside the base and get the information they needed to determine the cause of the outbreak.

And hopefully not die along the way.

Julian stood up and stretched his arms a bit more, remembering the day he just had. He and the others had to drive all around town dozens of times to save survivors and stop crazy people from killing them. Some of the psychopaths included an overly religious nut seeing this as a harbinger to the second coming of god, a strip club owner that chained zombie strippers to poles and fed them the patrons, and a female gymnast who saw humans as "competition."

But despite all the psychos they fought, Julian still managed to get out of killing the people directly. He was saving that for the pricks at the military base.

He huffed out in anger as he stuffed the crowbar he had grabbed back in his bag. His anger towards the realization of why the military was in the zombie business and that was part of the reason his parents had died had grown throughout the day. No matter what happened tonight, he was gonna make the people in that base pay.

Slinging his bag around his shoulder, he exited the room he was in and found Cody in the hallway, leaning against the wall.

"Hey," Julian greeted, a little surprised to see his friend.

"Hey," Cody returned the greeting. "You ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Julian told him, walking down the hallway, Cody right behind him.

"You sure?" Cody asked with a little uncertainty. "'Cause buddy, I'm gonna be honest, you seem a little-"

"A little what?" Julian snapped, stopping to turn and face Cody with anger and determination in his eyes.

Cody jumped slightly at the sight, not used to seeing it in his best friend.

"Look," he slowly said, raising his hands up slightly to emphasize his point. "I'm just saying that whatever happens tonight, you have to remember exactly why we're doing this."

_Revenge_, Julian thought, nodding his head.

"We're trying to figure out the reason the outbreak happened," Cody said instead, noticing the split second of confusion in Julian's eyes. "No offense, man, but you've gotta keep your emotions in check. I know you're angry; you have every right to be. But you can't let that anger drive everything you do. Stay focused."

Julian nodded his head, only half listening to Cody. He softly muttered out a, "Yeah," before turning away and walking back down the hallway to the stairs. Cody sighed out as he followed his friend.

Passing the many survivors they had saved so far, the two teens went down into the parking garage to find the other four of the group waiting for them. The motorcycle, RV, and armored military cars with machine guns were waiting nearby, ready.

"All right, we all remember the plan?" Raleigh asked.

The group nodded their heads or said, "Yes," in confirmation.

"All right," Raleigh continued as Carter emptied out the duffle bag on a nearby table, spreading out the guns.

"If we're gonna infiltrate this place, we need to be especially prepared," Carter announced. "Crowbars and knives won't be enough. They might be for zombies, but we're entering a place full of highly trained mercenaries."

"Yet we've managed to kill a bunch of them pretty easily," Becky commented.

"We were lucky," Carter remarked. "Took 'em by surprise and shit. But we're going right into their base, right where they sleep and eat, and _train_. So, we need to be prepared. And from what we've learned on past adventures: nothing says prepared like extra guns."

"That actually makes a bit of sense," Spider admitted.

"But how exactly are we supposed to carry them?" Cody asked. "We've only got two shoulders for two straps."

"Simple," Raleigh explained, reaching into the bag.

He pulled out a weapon's harness and slipped it on over his grey shirt.

"You'll have to leave the bags in the cars," Raleigh admitted. "But I think they're a worthy sacrifice here."

The group complied and stuffed their bags into their respective cars before slipping on the harnesses. They each took various guns and attached them onto the straps of the harnesses, making them easily reachable from where they were. Stocking ammo into the pouches on the lower parts of the harnesses, they prepared very quickly. Checking the time, they saw that it was 11:26. Moving quickly to the cars and got in, ready.

Julian ran over to the gate and opened it with the app on his phone. The RV and armored vehicles drove out, and Julian wheeled his motorcycle after them before moving to close the gate behind them. He got onto the motorcycle and drove it up the ramp to join the others. Becky and Cody were in the RV, Spider and Carter were in one of the armored cars, and Raleigh was in the second one.

"Let's get moving," Raleigh announced into their earpieces. "On my mark, everyone point out their positions. Mark 1!"

"Mark 2!" Julian announced. 

"Mark 3!" Cody announced.

"Mark 4!" Becky announced.

"Mark 5!" Spider announced.

"Mark 6!" Carter announced.

"All right!" Raleigh announced. "Let's get moving."

They all revved up their vehicles and drove down the street, ready for what was about to happen.

* * *

Downtown, the large zombie horde was aimlessly shuffling around, bumping into each other as they went from one place to the next. On the far side of the horde, the zombies attentions were drawn to the sound of nearby engines in power. The zombies looked up to see Julian on the Ducati and the RV drive up and stop across the street from them.

"Well, this is it," Julian announced, holding on to the handlebars tightly.

"This isn't gonna be pleasant," Cody commented.

"Doesn't that sound exactly like how our lives have been over the last two years?" Becky asked from the driver's seat.

"She's not wrong," Julian remarked. He looked out at the horde in front of them with new determination in his eyes. Gripping the handlebars, he remembered what words of "wisdom" he had given his friends right before they entered Nexropolis.

"'Lead, follow, or get out of the way'," Julian both announced and repeated.

The two vehicles turned and slowly started to drive down the road, with the zombies shuffling after them. As they expected, the zombies moving drew the attention of other zombies, and pretty soon, most of the horde was following them.

"This is Marks 2 though 4, we've got the horde," Julian announced into his earpiece. "We're on our way."

"You know, if we were going faster, we could put on Powerman 5000's Heroes and Villains," Becky told her friends. "I don't know what it is, but I feel like that'd be a good song for a motorcycle or car chase."

"Probably from the twenty times we had it playing while we were driving the bikes," Cody commented with a chuckle.

The three chuckled as they drove through the street, dreading what was waiting for them at the military base.

* * *

Not too far away, Raleigh launched out the drones with his smartphone. They flew over town before they reached the zombie horde being led by Julian and co. The drones flew over the horde and helped keep them in line for the journey.

"You know this is crazy, right?" Carter asked over the intercom.

"Very," Raleigh agreed. "But it's the only plan we got."

He then pressed the call button on his phone and held it up to his opposite ear.

"Logan," Raleigh said once the other man answered. "Are the explosives in the right place?"

"Yeah, on the outside of the west wall," Logan confirmed. "You've got the switch. Just press the button I gave you and it'll blow."

"All right," Raleigh nodded his head. "And if you're really staying to kill some zombies, then make sure you at least leave before the town gets blown to hell. The guys back home and the demigods would get annoyed if you didn't show up at the next get together because you got blown up."

"Noted," Logan remarked before the sound of a gun cocking originated from the receiver. "See you at the next barbecue."

Raleigh chuckled as he pressed the End Call button and put away his phone.

"This is Mark 1," Raleigh announced into his earpiece. "The explosives are set, I'm on my way."

"Good luck," his friends told him.

"This is gonna work," Raleigh reassured himself as the armored car drove down the road. "I know it! ...I think."

* * *

Marcus yawned out as he looked out at the road in front of him, tired. He was perched on the ledge above the entrance to the base, sitting next to one of the machine guns. When he was stationed to this town, he was hoping he'd be one of the scouting parties outside that would get to be fighting the zombies. He wasn't expecting to be stuck in the base playing security. This job was boring. Besides shooting a minivan with one of the big machine guns yesterday morning, there was nothing to do!

Checking his watch groggily, Marcus saw that it was 12:37 AM. He sighed out and looked down. Only one more day in this town, and they would be leaving, and they'd never see it again.

Looking out at the road again, Marcus furrowed his eyebrows in slight confusion. Light was coming from what looked like one of their armored cars driving right towards the base. This confused him until more light flared, causing his eyes to go wide.

The armored car was leading a large horde of zombies down the road, right at them!

Looking around quickly, Marcus saw that the horde was covering the street end to end, about a hundred zombies no doubt shuffling towards them.

"Boss!" Marcus announced. "We've got a problem!"

Two more soldiers ran along the wall towards him and widened their eyes simultaneously at the sight of the horde.

"What the hell?" the mustached one exclaimed.

"This would be payback!" Raleigh's voice called from the armored car. "For your attack on my base last night!"

"Shoot 'em!" the mustached man shouted as the three moved into positions towards the big machine guns. "Shoot 'em!"

Handgun fire originated from the driver's side of the armored car and hit Marcus right in the head, taking him out. The two remaining soldiers aimed their machine guns and fired at the armored vehicle and the zombies. The bullets tore through the zombies and dented and scratched the outside of the armored vehicle, but shattered the front window as bullets hit the two front seats. The car wheels screeched as it veered out of control and crashed the front of it through the front gate of the military base. The two soldiers grinned at taking that out before turning their attention towards the horde, readying the machine guns.

Then Raleigh popped out of the back seat, scrambling to the ground to stay out of the soldier's lines of sight.

"Thanks, PROXY!" Raleigh whispered into the car before running down the side of the base wall.

The android in question stuck his head out the window and waved bye to Raleigh.

"No problem, Raleigh, see you later," PROXY whispered on the same frequency of the human's earpiece. He changed frequencies quickly. "I'm on my way home, Master..."

Raleigh, meanwhile, had made his way along the west wall and was now close enough to the explosions that Logan had set up. He took out the button and looked down the road. Julian on the Ducati and Cody and Becky in the RV were just coming into the line of sight with the rest of the horde behind them.

"This is Mark 1," Raleigh announced into his earpiece. "I'm in position. Marks 5 and 6, where are you? Are you guys close?"

"Pretty close," Carter's voice answered as a familiar sound originated behind him.

The sound of tires on the ground made Raleigh turn to see the other armored vehicle stop a few feet away from him. Carter and Spider got out, and looked down the road to see the others.

"Taking a quarter of the horde and distracting them at the front gates," Carter assessed, assault rifle in his hands. "Crazy, but genius."

"Hey, remember, he's one vengeful rampage away from being a mad scientist," Spider joked, looking between the two men. "Was there ever any doubt the plan wouldn't work?"

"Thank you, Spider," Raleigh smiled at the young punk. "Now, let's get out of the way. This is gonna be a big blast."

They all ran behind the armored car and looked up slightly to see the wall with the C4 on it. Raleigh raised the button up, looked away with his eyes closed, and pressed it...

And nothing happened.

He pressed the button again three more times, growing more and more confused as nothing continued to happen. He sighed out in exasperation at the event and tossed the button aside.

"Why am I not surprised?" Carter sighed out, looking down in annoyance.

"Ah, well," Raleigh said, taking a grenade off of his weapons harness. "There are other ways."

He took the pin off and lobed the grenade at the wall where the C4 was. The three ducked down as the grenade blew up, setting off the C4, which blew a large hole in the wall.

The large explosion gave the group leading the zombies the cue they needed to drive forwards a bit faster. They drove up next to their friends and parked their vehicles next to the armored military car. The three teens got out and faced their friends, who were climbing out from behind the car.

"Nice job leading the zombies here," Raleigh told them.

"Nice job blowing up the wall," Julian rebutted.

They all looked towards the zombie horde shuffling towards them, each one of them holding guns in their hands.

"You sure they'll follow us inside?" Becky asked.

"If you were starving, would you say 'no' to a free meal?" Carter asked.

"But just in case..." Spider said. He pointed the Mac 10 submachine gun he was holding into the air and fired off three shots. "Over here, you undead pricks!"

"Fresh brains!" Cody called out to help. "Right this way!"

The six of them waited until the zombies had gotten what they deemed was close enough and walked through the smoldering hole in the wall, right into the military base that was blaring an alarm from its speakers nearby. Mercenaries had started to run out through a nearby side door, and the group didn't hesitate to fire. Becky shot one down with an MP9 automatic weapon, causing him to fall to the ground in injury. Julian added to the onslaught by shooting the Benelli M4 shotgun he had at another soldier, hitting him in the soldier and causing him to fall to the ground.

When the soldiers along the top ledges of the facility started pointing their guns at the group was when the zombies shuffled in through the hole in the wall. Some of them redirected their gunfire at the zombies, but that didn't stop the six from shooting them. Cody proved this by shooting a soldier on a ledge with his AK-47, causing him to fall ten fifteen feet to the ground before getting pounced on by zombies.

"We're gonna head in through the loading bay," Raleigh announced as he fired his assault rifle at an approaching zombie, gesturing to himself and Carter. "You guys find another entrance. We'll meet up once we get everything we need."

"Good luck, Marks 2 through 5!" Carter yelled as he and Raleigh ran off.

"Likewise, Marks 1 and 6!" Becky yelled back as she fired her submachine gun at approaching zombies.

"Where do we go?" Spider shouted over the noice as he fired his M4 assault rifle at nearby soldiers.

"This looks important!" Cody announced, running towards a nearby closed metal gate.

They followed him over to the gate and he quickly used the function on his phone to open it, causing the gate to slide up. The four went through, and Becky stopped Cody from closing the gate behind them.

"What's the use of having the horde if they just all hang around outside?" Becky asked.

"Good point," Cody admitted, putting away his phone.

They ran down the outside alleyway, shooting at approaching soldiers from one side and approaching zombies from the other side. They ran down the alley until they reached a doorway attached to the large enough building. There was a metal, electric door separating them from what was inside, causing a bit of distress. Spider quickly went to work with the function on his phone while the others shot at approaching enemies.

"I got it!" Spider announced as the door slid up.

Their attentions were drawn to the sound of a blood-curtling roar nearby. Super zombies leaped down from the sides of the building and ran past the normal zombies at them. The four fired at the approaching zombies, normal and Super alike, knocking them all to the ground. Four became three as Julian slid more shells into his shotgun.

"Let's move!" Becky announced.

Cody and Spider did not hesitate to listen to her and ran through the electric door with her. Spider was about to close it before he and the others realized that Julian was still outside.

"Julian, what the hell are you doing?" Cody called out.

With the anger painfully obvious on his face, Julian ignored Cody and pumped his shotgun, preparing it to fire. He aimed it at the approaching zombies and super zombies and continued to fire, ignoring his friends crying out his name. When a soldier on top of the wall lifted up an RPG, Julian aimed his shotgun at the man. He fired, hitting the man in the legs, causing him to fall off onto the ground, exclaiming in pain. Cody grabbed Julian by the weapon's harness and pulled the struggling brunette through the electric door as the soldier was swarmed by zombies. With the RPG still in his hand, it fired out the rocket which hit the ground in front of the door, knocking back the two friends and Spider with a big explosion. Becky exclaimed as she finally hit the button which closed the door, separating them from the outside.

The boys on the ground slowly got up as all four of them coughed out from the smoke in the room from the fire. All four got scorch marks on their clothes, and the boys were a little bruised from being flung around. The three of them struggled to get up and stand properly.

"What the hell!?" Julian and Cody both yelled at each other once they were on their feet, turning to face each other angrily. Their anger turned into angry shock. "Me!?"

"No, no, no!" Cody exclaimed. "If anyone should be angry here, it's me! You should have followed us once the coast was clear. You had no excuse to stay back and keep shooting!"

"No excuse?" Julian exclaimed, angry. "That guy had a rocket aimed at us! A 'thank you' would suffice, you know!"

"Julian, stop bullshitting us!" Cody exclaimed, speaking what everyone else was thinking. "You played it cool, but we know the anger and sadness you felt last night never went away. Quite the opposite, it only grew into vengeful determination."

"Julian, he's right," Becky announced as she helped Spider stand a bit straighter. "You're letting your anger cloud your judgement."

"Hell, you staying back and shooting at them is evidence enough!" Spider added, gesturing to the door. "Look, we know what happened to your parents was awful-"

"No!" Julian exclaimed, holding up a hand to stop the punk while looking down. "No, just... Don't... talk about them."

"Sorry, Jules," Cody said, garnering his friend's attention. "But you need to hear this. We know that you hate this organization because their testing is what started Hybra to make your parents into those things. But you can't just think that trying to take them all out will do anything. Julian... you already went through all of this anger and depression two years ago after they were in the car accident. I'm sorry, man, but you need to face the facts: your parents are gone. And this ain't gonna bring them back."

Anger quickly passed over Julian's face, and he rushed towards Cody. Using both his hands, he pushed Cody into the opposite wall with a bit of force. Which was quite an amusing sight to see considering Cody was a solid four inches taller than his brunette friend.

"Don't say that!" Julian slowly exclaimed in anger. "Don't... say that..."

Cody kept a sympathetic look on his face as he watched the anger slowly fade from Julian's. The anger slid away into sadness, and before they knew it, Julian was sobbing with his eyes closed. Cody gestured Becky and Spider over, and they surrounded Julian in another sympathetic group hug. He accepted it gratefully, crying into his friend's shoulders, which they allowed.

They parted from the hug and Julian sniffled as he wiped the tears away from his eyes.

"You good?" Cody asked.

"Yeah," Julian sniffled out, looking up at his friends. "Yeah, I think I'm good."

"For real this time?" Becky asked, warily.

"For real," Julian shakily told them. "I'm... I'll be okay."

"Good, cause we can't have a super pissed guy on a mission," Spider remarked. "He'd get us all sorts of killed."

"Yeah," Julian sighed out before looking up again. "Where are we, anyway?"

They looked around with him to see that they were in a hallway with weird looking metal walls, all sorts of contraptions running up to the ceiling with bright lights originating from circular lamps. To their right was just a wall near the metal door, and to their left, the hallway extended out for a good amount of distance before it was made into a right turn.

"Yeah, this isn't foreboding at all," Becky commented.

Julian kneeled down and picked up his dropped shotgun before noticing it got pretty badly burnt from the explosion. He set it down and stood up, replacing it with his crowbar, which he had slipped out of his bag and onto his harness earlier.

"Like it or not, it looks like it's the only way for us to go," Julian told them.

"I hate it when that's the reason for us to go somewhere," Spider remarked, holding his M4.

"Same," Becky agreed, grabbing her MP9 again and holding it in her hands. "But it's what we gotta do."

"Let's move," Cody announced, holding his AK-47. "We've got less than 24 hours before they blow the town. And I'd rather be on the helicopter out than still here investigating."

The three others nodded their heads in agreement, and they started down the hallway.

* * *

Meanwhile, Carter and Raleigh had entered a loading area and shot at the soldiers waiting there for them. Moving quickly through the base, they ran into a side door and through multiple hallways, passing multiple intricate rooms.

After going through a large chamber, the two of them came across big glass walls, a bunch of super zombies pounding on the glass at the sight of the two.

"That's rough," Raleigh commented.

"Let's stay out of their way," Carter remarked. "Less chance of getting our faces eaten."

"Agreed," Raleigh said, gripping his assault rifle as they walked down the hallway.

Not surprisingly, they reached a laboratory at the end of the hallway. Inside, they found multiple examination tables with dead normal zombies wearing hospital gowns on top. Raleigh took out his smartphone and started taking pictures for evidence.

"This must be where they scan the infected flesh for examination," Raleigh theorized, noticing petri dishes with samples of said bloodied flesh inside.

"They really couldn't smell proof these things?" Carter complained, waving a hand in front of his face to try to protect his nose from the smell of rotting corpses.

"Sorry, buddy," Raleigh relented. "We're stuck with that."

He took a few more pictures before he came to a nearby monitor. Placing his assault rifle down, Raleigh started pressing some keys on a keyboard, and found what he was looking for.

"Personal files," he announced, looking towards Carter with a smug smile on his face.

He clicked on the link, and that's when things went wrong.

An alarm blared with the stereotypical red lights, surprising both of the commandos a bit. Before they could do anything, grey smoke spewed out of what looked like speakers.

"Gas!" the two of them exclaimed in unison.

They tried to move quickly towards the door, but the gas quickly over came them, causing the two to fall to the floor in coughing messes. Carter and Raleigh both collapsed to the ground, their visions becoming blurrier by the second. Coughing out in distress, Raleigh looked up through his blurry vision to see the distorted image of a bald man wearing a gas mask.

"Nice to finally get the chance to meet you in person," the familiar, scratchy voice told him. "We've got a lot of socializing to do."

Raleigh sighed out as the gas overtook him, making him slip into unconsciousness.

* * *

Their guns raised in preparation, the four young adults slipped through the hallways in apprehension, on edge for whatever they would face in this building. Remembering their friends earlier words about everyone in here being trained killers, they were a little nervous. The horde of zombies that had followed them inside didn't help things.

The four of them eventually reached a new laboratory, different from the one that their friends were in. In this one, live zombies were strapped to the examination tables, with what looked like a dead super zombie on the last table, farthest from them.

Walking down the side of the table, Cody noticed different things on each examination table. The one with a normal zombie had a microscope aimed at the head, which confused him a bit. The second table contained a female zombie, with a vial of red liquid and some syringes on the table. The third table contained a super zombie strapped down with metal clamps had a drill piece, and the transmitter devices they remembered from the examination. Cody put the pieces together in his head.

"I think I get it," Cody informed them. He pointed at the second table. That's where they put in that mixture that makes them stronger and faster. And this one..." He gestured to the table with the super zombie. "Is where they lobotomize them for that bald dude to control them."

"Shit," Spider and Becky sighed out in slightly horrified unison.

Both of them each had an eyebrow cocked up as they stared at the zombies on the table. Julian, meanwhile was still at the door staring down the hallway. Cody moved towards a nearby computer, before Julian stopped him.

"Guys," he announced, getting his friends' attentions. He gestured them over, and they walked up next to him, where he was pointing down the hallway. Following his finger, the three saw a door at the end of the hallway marked "Records." "I think that might be a better place to check."

"Yeah," Cody agreed, raising his rifle in preparation. "Yeah, let's check it out."

They walked down the hallway and reached the records room door. Julian used the app on his phone to open the electronic lock and they entered the room. The room itself was pretty small, similar in size to a walk in closet. On the right side of the room was multiple computers, with wires on the ground running into large servers as tall as Cody on their left.

Cody set his rifle down on the table qnd sat at the desk.

"Hey, how do you know there aren't any security measures in here?" Becky asked.

"The door was locked and needed a keycard to get inside," Julian explained. "They probably weren't expecting anyone to get past that. Plus, like Raleigh said, you've seen too many spy movies, Beck."

Becky chuckled at that as Cody went into the system, quickly finding many video files. Cody clicked on one, which brought up the bald headed sergeant in a meeting with two people in suits, one of which was Julian's uncle Charles, the other a short haired brunette with glasses. The video file was dated October 9th, 2004.

"So, we're all in agreement?" the sergeant asked.

"Affirmative," Charles confirmed, nodding his head. "We have started drawing out blueprints for the new and improved exo-suit. However, we are starting to run low on our supply of Tryoxin-5."

"How much do you have left?" the other man in the suit asked.

"One more barrel," Charles explained. "If we're lucky, it'll last one more year."

"I'll get in contact with our allies in Chernobyl," the sergeant informed them. "They should have a few more barrels stored underground somewhere."

"Thank you, sergeant Sinclair," Charles said, unknowingly giving the people watching the man's name. "Now, we have another problem."

"What would that be, Garrison?" Sinclair asked.

"If you really want me to stuff the zombies in exo-suits, fine," Charles assured them. "But i still don't understand how zombies in robot suits will help assure world domination from zombies on heavy steroids."

"Allow me to reiterate, Charles," the other man in the suit announced. "We strategically start outbreaks in specific areas around the world. The Evolved Dead will appear in the outbreaks, and make people think the undead are more powerful than they thought. That's when Hybra offers the soldiers in the suits, and under Sinclair's orders, the Evolved Dead will fall to the Techno Dead."

"They won't hesitate to allow us to rise to power once that happens," Sinclair remarked. "The world will be ours."

"All right," Charles said, nodding his head in reaffirmation. "Okay. I get it. One more thing, though."

Sinclair frowned slightly, confused as to how the man had more.

"My brother and sister-in-law have volunteered at Hybra," Charles informed them. "And with their connections to me, there's no telling what they'll be able to find. And they have two sons, so obviously, they'd try to leak out the information."

"The usual?" Sinclair asked.

"Make it look like an accident," Charles reaffirmed.

"We've been doing this for years," Sinclair informed him. "I know how these things work."

The video image froze, confirming to them that it was over. Cody, Becky, and Spider looked over at Julian in sympathy, not knowing how he would take the information. Julian just had his eyes closed, keeping every emotion off of his face as his head was pointed at the monitor, and his hands gripped the table.

"Julian," Becky said, raising a hand towards him in sympathy.

"It wasn't an accident," Julian announced, opening his eyes and staring down at the monitor. "They murdered my parents and desecrated their corpses as part of their experiments."

"Are you gonna start crying again?" Spider asked, warily.

"I've cried enough," Julian admitted, looking up at his friends. "You guys are right. They're gone, and never coming back. ...But the least I can do is make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else. My family might be gone, but i can help make sure people keep theirs."

"Who says your family's gone?" Becky asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Family don't end with blood," Cody agreed, nodding his head at a confused looking Julian with a smile on his face.

"Hell, yeah," Spider added, smile on his own face. "I might not have known you guys that long, but in the short time I have, we've been through too much for us to not be at least friends."

"It's always good to be friends with a stoner," Cody remarked, causing them all to laugh.

Julian smiled, knowing they were right. After all they've been through over the last couple of years... hell, the last couple of _days..._ how could they just be "friends" at this point? Thinking about it even further, he started to realize how much he had missed Jenny over the last couple of days.

"Hey, what else is on this computer?" Becky asked, gesturing to the monitor again.

"I don't know," Cody admitted, clicking exit and seeing some of the other videos. His eyes widened at one. "Hey, this one is dated two weeks ago."

"Click it," Julian instructed him, and Cody complied.

Another video came up with Sinclair, Charles, and the third man. This time, Charles was wearing more casual clothing and stood in front of the table while the two men sat around it.

"How is the progress with the planned outbreaks?" Sinclair asked.

"We've arranged for the first outbreak to happen in Elswood, Alabama," the third man informed him. Once we blow up the town, the governent can blame it on the nuclear power plant. They might be suspicious, but that'll cause the next outbreak to only make them even more afraid."

"Excellent," Sinclair nodded his head, before looking up at Charles. "Garrison, the progress with the Techno Dead?"

"A few minor setbacks," Charles admitted. "After what happened last year with my nephew, Julian, and his friends, causing Hybra to go under, we've had to be more secretive. The Techno Dead are stored underground, but the barrels of Tryoxin-5 have been hard to move around. A company called AMS has been trying to get me to answer their questions, and have made it impossible to find a good place to store them. They're currently stashed away in my attic."

"Get in contact with some Russians," Sinclair ordered. "They're searching for barrels for profit. Once you unload the barrels on them, the trail will lead back to them once the AMS and the FBI find out what was causing the outbreaks."

"That way, there's no trace back to us," the third man assessed with a smirk. "But what about the remaining 245-Trioxin?"

"That's being stored away for different uses," Sinclair informed them. "After all, we're not gonna run out of uses for zombies, are we?"

The four young adults looked at each other with wide eyes at the video.

"There'll be more outbreaks," Spider assessed.

"They tried to frame Gino and Aldo," Cody assessed.

"Thousands of innocent people will die," Becky assessed, fear in her voice.

"Not if we have anything to say about it," Julian said with determination.

He pulled out his smartphone and a cord that could plug into the computer.

"Raleigh showed me how to transfer files from a computer onto this thing yesterday," Julian explained as he plugged one end of the wire into the computer, and the other into his smartphone. "It goes like this..."

He showed ody what to do, and the two of them downloaded the two videos they had watched, and multiple others that would come in handy onto Julian's phone.

"That should be enough evidence to put these bastards away for life," Becky commented.

"Let's go," Cody announced, standing up and grabbing his rifle. "We gotta find the others and get the hell out of here."

The other three nodded in agreement as Julian picked up his crowbar. They exited the records room and went back down the hallways they came in through, ready to leave.

Entering a large room with two other exits, they stopped in their places at the sounds of gun hammers clicking.

Blocking the way they came in was about seven or eight military soldiers pointing their guns at them. In the middle of these soldiers was sergeant Sinclair, holding an assault rifle at a frightened looking Raleigh and Carter's backs. The two's weapons harnesses were on a nearby table, holding their guns. So close, and yet so far away.

"Put down your weapons, or we will open fire," Sinclair ordered them. "Now!"

Slowly, but surely, the four young adults complied. They each slowly crouched down and laid the weapons in their hands on the floor before just as slowly standing up, their hands raised in surrender.

"Guys, what the hell?" Becky asked Raleigh and Carter. "I thought you guys said you were experts in sneakily infiltrating a base like this?"

"No, we said we were experts at breaking into a place like this," Carter corrected her. "We get captured all the time on these things."

"_Now _you share that detail with us?" Spider asked, rightfully annoyed.

"Shut up," Sinclair snapped, annoyed.

He pushed Carter and Raleigh forwards, and they exclaimed as they were knocked against their friends.

"Julian Garrison," Sinclair remarked, looking at Julian with welcome surprise, as said boy just looked at him with general surprise. "It's nice to meet the legend in person."

"You know me?" Julian asked, surprised.

"Your uncle spoke of you a lot," Sinclair told him. "The idiot Senior that got his friends and little brother killed in a zombie outbreak."

"They died because you pricks were testing with zombies," Cody remarked. "You have any idea how fucked up that is? They might be wandering meatheads, but they used to be people."

"You sound just like that one president," Sinclair muttered in annoyance as he looked up at the ceiling.

"Who the hell even _are _you, man?" Becky asked with rightful confusion.

"Oh, how embarrassing," Sinclair said with a fake laugh. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sergeant Alonso Sinclair. I have been a part of the government's operation with zombies for longer than anyone else in my unit."

"How far back?" Spider asked, inquisitively. "This zombie-making gas shit goes back to '69." He leaned towards Cody and muttered, "Great number for a year."

"Exactly," Sinclair remarked, surprising them a bit. "Back when the gas was first introduced, I was still a rookie. As time went on, I grew more and more in power. My cousin was even in control at one point in a base back in the 90's."

"The boss bitch that John met," Raleigh whispered to the others in slight amazement.

"Unfortunately, she was devoured," Sinclair continued. "But I kept up her research."

"The exo-suits," Cody assessed. "Just like the ones you stuffed Julian's parents into."

"Exactly," Sinclair agreed. "The exoskeleton makes them exactly the kind of soldiers they need." He looked at Becky with puzzlement in his eyes. "Yet, it amazes me that both of our prototypes were taken out easily by a little, nerdy girl."

"I'm more capable than I look," Becky remarked defiantly, still keeping her hands up just in case.

"But we were still provided with the necessary information for the Techno Dead," Sinclair continued, looking towards Julian. "All thanks to your uncle, Mr. Garrison."

"Okay, 1," Julian started. "Techno Dead is stupid. It sounds like a bad emo band from the 80's. No offense, Spider." Spider waved his hand in a "None taken" gesture. "And 2, you corrupted my uncle. To the point where he asked you to have my parents killed, and didn't even shrug when my little brother died."

"Oh, please," Sinclair remarked, waving a hand. "We never corrupted him or made him do anything he never wanted to do. He was in charge of Hybra from the start. And from the sounds of it, he wasn't exactly fond of you, your parents, _or_ your brother. Based off of his explanation, I did him a favor."

Julian gritted his teeth and looked down, trying to ignore the man's words.

"Where is old Charles, anyway?" Sinclair asked. "He was supposed to report in last week after he got rid of the barrels. Bad time to go on vacation..."

"He's dead," Cody informed him. "Things went wrong with the deal, and our friends, Gino and Aldo barely got out alive."

Sinclair looked surprised at that, before furrowing his eyebrows in thought.

"That explains the outbreak at Florida University," Sinclair said in slight realization. He looked up at Cody, a slight smile on his face. "Yeah, we heard some idiot college student got his hands on a barrel, and made it into a drug for the students there. Got a whole lot of people killed in pretty awful ways."

Cody took in his words with a blank look on his face, knowing the truth about them. He had come to terms that it was his fault the outbreak had happened, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt to be reminded about it.

"We did our homework, Mr. Cavanuagh," Sinclair remarked, cocky smile on his face. "We know all about what happened there, and during your previous outbreak experience."

"Then you'll know he tried to do the right thing in the end," Becky remarked. "At the rave, he didn't hesitate to save his girlfriend at the cost of his own life."

"And Ms. Carlton," Sinclair added, looking at her. "With all your experience with fighting zombies, even dispatching the two Techno Dead by yourself, it's amazing you didn't see the signs in time to save your boyfriend from getting scratched."

Becky did the same that Cody and Julian were doing and gritted her teeth, trying to control her rage and anguish.

"And as for you..." Sinclair continued, looking towards Spider.

"Go ahead," Spider remarked, cockily. "You got nothing on me."

"Trey Lerner," Sinclair announced, making Spider's eyes go wide. They quickly put together that that was Spider's real name. "When you disappeared from Louisville in 1984, your family survived. They were on vacation out of town, and didn't know what was going on. They thought you were taken out in the blast, and they were devastated. Your parents mourned you, your older siblings did things in your name, but your younger sister wouldn't accept. For years, she denied that you were dead, and would constantly, desperately search for traces of you anywhere. Eventually, she went too far. She's paralyzed from the waist down, and will probably never walk again. All because you went off with these people..."

Spider joined his friends in gritting his teeth, trying to control his emotions towards Sinclair, even though like his friends, he wanted to murder the man.

"Why are you telling us all of this?" Raleigh asked, he and Carter being the only ones Sinclair didn't have dirt on.

"Oh, because it's not going to matter in a minute," Sinclair admitted.

"Why?" Carter asked with suspicion, feeling he already knew the answer.

"Because you're all about to die," Sinclair announced.

The seven other soldiers raised their rifles at the six friends. All of their eyes widened and hearts raced as they watched the soldiers turn the safety off on their rifles. Julian gulped as he stared down the barrel of an MP5 rifle, apprehension growing as the helplessness grew around them...

The sound of automatic gunfire rang out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger, but there's a few more key points I need to figure out before the resolution. I had to make up a few things about Charles, but honestly, watching Necropolis, it does seem he's more annoyed at having his nephews in his house than nurturing.
> 
> As for all the rage and anger over the events of the previous movies, well those can be justified. For Cody and Becky, it still has only been just a few days since Rave to the Grave, so naturally, they'll still be grieving over it. And Julian with his being upset about his parents, well, kind of the same reason. He just found out the truth about how they died a few days prior, and is only now seeing why they died in the first place. Of course he's gonna have renewed anger and sorrow for what's going on.
> 
> I also tweaked a few things about Spider since they never even mention his backstory in the original move, (for good reason(?) They can't have overly sympathetic characters in a movie where all the main characters die, I guess), which does also give him a real name. He still goes by Spider, obviously, since that's what we know him as. That's just there for fun and knowing it


	12. Running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group escapes the military base, but run into new problems

Julian winced and closed his eyes as the automatic gunfire continued. He prepared himself for the inevitable pain before he realized the gunfire was still going on for longer than it should have. He opened his eyes to see the seven soldiers and Sinclair looking back into the doorway that they had entered from, all of them pointing their rifles at the ceiling. Sparing a quick look to his five friends, Julian was relieved to see that all of them were still alive. Spider and Becky were even following Raleigh's instructions to grab the smoke and flash grenades they had attached to the upper straps of their harnesses.

Looking towards the exit that Sinclair and his allies were looking, Julian saw multiple other soldiers coming into view, firing their rifles at what he guessed was approaching zombies. The horde was coming in handy. Sensing the chance, Becky and Spider pulled the pins from their explosives and tossed them towards the ground at the soldier's feet.

The flash grenade caused a light so bright that it blinded the soldiers long enough for the smoke grenade to almost entirely cover their points of vision. Raleigh and Carter quickly grabbed their weapons harnesses while the others picked up their weapons off of the floor. They quickly moved out of the way as the blinded soldiers fired their rifles at them, and the ones holding rifles themselves fired right back.

"Side exit!" Raleigh yelled. "Let's move!"

Julian and Cody led the way to the exit, Julian carrying his crowbar in his right hand and a Zigana Sport FS9 handgun in his left hand, and Cody carrying his AK-47. Raleigh and Carter followed them, putting their harnesses back on as quickly as they could. Becky and Spider took up the rear while holding off the soldiers, Becky with her MP9 and Spider with his M4.

The six of them had plenty of troubles navigating the hallways to try to find the way out. They pushed through countless normal zombies, dozens of super zombies, and four soldiers, which Julian somehow still managed to get out of killing. His ability to dodge killing anything that was living was beginning to surprise even him.

Anyway, they eventually managed to push through the doors and into an open yard. Groups of zombies were gathered together all around the yard, Some were munching on people, others were moving into the base, and some were just wandering aimlessly. Luckily there was just enough between them and the hole in the wall they had made for them to push, knock, or shoot through.

They immediately started running, Julian taking the lead and doing exactly that with his crowbar when zombies got too close. Some soldiers on walls tried shooting at them, which is where he aimed his handgun, hitting legs but somehow still not killing anyone. It wasn't easy with all the gunfire and zombies getting close, but they eventually managed to get out through the hole in the wall and run back to their vehicles.

Julian, Cody, and Becky climbed into the RV while Carter, Spider, and Raleigh climbed into the armored vehicle, both groups grabbing more ammo to stuff into their still endless jacket pockets.

"What do we do now, Mark 1?" Julian asked over earpiece.

"We put as much distance between this place and us as possible," Raleigh informed them. "There's no telling how many soldiers will follow us, and I'd like as few of them to follow us back to base."

"You mean the apartment complex?" Sinclair's voice suddenly appeared over the intercom, in all six of the groups' ears.

"What the hell?" Becky asked, frightened.

"Sinclair?" Carter asked, confused.

"Oh, one of my little pets picked up one of your earpieces during the attack on your base last night," Sinclair informed them. "Brought it back to me."

"Oh, shit," Spider said in realization. "During the attack, I was tackled, and my bag of equipment was spilled open. Some earpieces fell out of a ziplock bag."

"It wasn't your fault," Raleigh informed the guilty-sounding Spider. "You didn't know."

"Even so," Sinclair told them. "I can still hear _all_ your conversations now. And I think you might be interested to know we're moving up the detonation of the city."

"_What?_" the six asked all at once, disbelief in their voices.

"But you were supposed to keep the city intact until you finished all arrangements!" Carter remarked.

"Exactly," Sinclair informed them. "The base has been compromised. So, with not as much equipment to move out, our work is all but done. I think I'll make the new time to launch the missile 6:00 this morning."

Julian checked his watch urgently.

"Guys, that's three and a half hours from now!" he exclaimed.

"Lose the earpieces!" Raleigh yelled.

The six of them pulled the devices out of their ears, slightly hearing Sinclair mutter, "So predictable." Julian got out of the RV, and looked towards them.

"Keep in touch by phones now!" Raleigh informed him from his car. "That's closed off from them."

"Good idea," Julian commented, walking down the line of the RV.

He turned the corner and saw his Ducati there waiting for him. Before he could more any closer to it, though, a rocket flew from the base and blew it up, spraying shrapnel in multiple directions. Julian was lucky enough to move out of the way and cover his ears to just manage to avoid the sound from the explosion and the shrapnel. He quickly ran to the RV door and climbed inside, closing it behind him.

"Go!" Julian yelled at Cody in the driver's seat. "Drive!"

Cody didn't hesitate and hit the gas, taking them down the road as quickly as he could. The others followed in their armored military car, and eventually the two were driving side by side down the road. Becky's phone then rang, and seeing it was Raleigh, she answered, put it on speaker, and placed it down on the dashboard so they could all hear.

"What do we do?" Becky asked, scared. "We've only got just above three more hours left!"

"All right, here's the plan," Raleigh started to explain. "First, we..."

They were cut off when gunfire originated close-by, hitting the backs of both of the cars, blowing out the back windows. Motorcycles driven by soldiers with rifles mounted to the middle of the handlebars were following them, along with two armored vehicles with big guns on top, the same design that the other members of the group were in.

The group went to work as quickly as they could. Becky replaced her MP9 with a freshly loaded modified MP5 rifle similar to what the boys used at Necropolis, Julian loaded a fresh clip into his handgun, Carter got a bulletproof helmet out of his bag and stood up to use the gun on top of his car, and Spider cautiously grabbed his M4 rifle. Spider, Becky, and Julian faced the back windows of their cars and fired their guns outside pretty quickly.

With rapid fire mode enabled, Becky, Spider, and Carter went to work to take out the motorbikes and cars, which took more than a few bullets. Julian wasn't as lucky, since his gun just shot one at a time caused him to miss most of his shots. And the ones that did hit barely did any effect.

They had to do quick patterns while shooting. Becky and Spider didn't exactly have bulletproof material protecting their heads, so once they finished firing, they had to duck back to avoid the gunfire. It wasn't easy, but the two of them managed to take out three motorbikes before they had to reload. Carter had managed to take out the driver of one armored car, causing it to veer out of control and crash into two more bikes.

They eventually entered the city and had to swerve to avoid the already crashed cars and other roadblocks caused by the outbreak. The worst part that there was still one more armored car and motorbike after them, making things even harder.

Luckily, when the motorbike ended up in front of the car, Becky got an idea. She waited until the bike was in front of one of the tires before she aimed her rifle at its driver. She fired at the driver, hitting him in the chest and causing the bike to fall to the ground. The bike skid into the front wheels of the armored car, knocking it upwards, and causing it to do a giant front flip in the air and crash into the ground, hard.

"Nice job, Beck!" Julian praised, patting her on the shoulder.

"Yeah, good job, Becky!" Spider praised through her phone.

Becky blushed and smiled at all the praise before a stuttering sound originated from the RV.

"Oh, no!" Cody exclaimed in sadness as the car slowed down. "The gunfire must have hit something."

"Stop next to that bar," Raleigh informed him, gesturing to the nearest bar.

Slowly but surely, Cody guided the RV to the side of the bar on the corner street as Raleigh parked in front of the front doors. The six of them parked their vehicles, grabbed their bags, and regrouped outside. The damage to the RV was unfixable from the looks of things.

"That doesn't look good," Carter commented.

Rapid gunfire sent them scrambling. Looking down the street, the group was able to see soldiers jumping out of the back of a van and start shooting at them.

"That's even worse!" Spider exclaimed, returning fire with his rifle.

The six ran down the side of the RV and towards the doors to the bar. Well, all of them except for Raleigh. He stopped at the armored vehicle they had used and pulled out a grenade from his weapons harness. He yanked the pin off and threw it through the open window before following the others into the bar.

"What the hell was that about?" Julian asked.

The car exploded outside from the grenade, causing the soldiers to recoil a bit.

"If we can't have it, no one can," Raleigh informed them.

"Good philosophy," Carter commented.

Gunfire continued outside, forcing them back. Julian managed to grab a Remington 870 shotgun with wooden bits from below the counter and carried it with him into a side hallway with the others. Behind them was a back exit, and Carter kept an eye towards the entrance, just in case soldiers tried rushing in. He kept half an eye peeking around the corner so he could keep watch. 

"What's the plan now?" Becky asked as she reloaded her rifle.

"We need to keep their attention on us," Raleigh informed them. "It won't do us any good to just lure these pricks back to the base so they can execute everyone there."

Rapid gunfire originated from outside the bar, hitting the wall adjacent to their hallway. Once that gunfire was over, Carter popped out quickly and fired his rifle towards the soldiers to scare them away, maybe hitting one or two of them.

"How do we do that?" Cody asked, reloading his AK-47.

"We draw them deeper into the city," Raleigh explained. "Keep them drawn to us while the hotel gets evacuated."

"I imagine we split up for this portion?" Spider asked, cocking his rifle.

More gunfire originated from Carter's rifle announced that they still had problems at the immediate time.

"Groups of two," Raleigh informed them. "We go around the town for maybe an hour or so. That'll give us plenty of time for the survivors to escape. That'll give us enough time for them to escape, then we can go back there and get the fuck out of town!"

"Sounds like a good plan!" Julian remarked as Carter's rifle clicked empty.

"I got nothing left in that thing," Carter announced, coming back to join them as gunfire hit the wall behind him.

"Three teams," Raleigh continued over the gunfire. "Me and Carter, Becky and Spider, Cody and Julian. We escape through this back door."

He pointed with his thumb at the door behind them.

"Uh, guys?" Becky announced, a little bit of fear in her voice.

They followed her line of sight to see the army soldiers part out of the way for Sinclair. An RPG was in his hands.

"Run!" Spider yelled, kicking open the back door.

He shot a zombie that was outside while the others followed him outside. Just in time, too. When Carter went to close the door behind them, the explosion from the rocket knocked him back onto the ground.

"Ow," Carter croaked, launching himself back up onto his feet.

"Come on," Raleigh instructed him, moving to stand up on a big metal garbage can that was outside. "We go by the rooftops."

"All right," Carter simply said.

He then ran at the brick wall and jumped up pretty high towards it. He then proceeded to jump up the entire brick wall, somehow bracing each individual foot on it even though there weren't any ledges that gave him support. Carter was on the roof in seconds.

"Show-off!" Raleigh called out as he pulled out a rope with a grappling hook on the end. He threw it up high into the air, where it connected onto the roof, before looking at the remaining four. "Two go down one side of the alley, two go down the other. Don't get lost!"

The four gave him thumbs-ups as he used the rope to walk up the wall onto the roof. Julian and Cody shared a quick fist bump with Spider and a quick hug with Becky before they went their separate ways down the alleyway.

Sinclair looked into the fiery remains of the inside of the bar with a smirk on his face. While he was sure that they had found a way to escape the room before the rocket exploded, he knew they were scared and frightened. Exactly what he wanted.

The sound of gunfire originated from the roof, some of the shots hitting the soldiers near him. Sinclair quickly moved out of the way and looked up, seeing Raleigh and Carter shooting down at his soldiers. The army men took notice quickly and returned fire, almost all of their shots missing due to the two commandos having a good hiding spot. Looking around anxiously, Sinclair saw Becky and Spider exiting the back side of the building on his left, running down the road.

"Get after them!" Sinclair ordered his troops, pointing at the two. "And get some men behind the building. There's no doubt Garrison and Cavanaugh ran down the other alleyway to escape."

On the roof, Raleigh and Carter were currently laid down to dodge the cascade of bullets flying over them, when Carter furrowed an eyebrow in confusion. He looked over at Raleigh, who also looked a little confused.

"Do you hear music?" Carter shouted over the gunfire.

"Yeah," Raleigh admitted. "Fast paced, kind of techno, like what they'd play at a rave?"(*1)

"Yeah," Carter said, nodding his head. "You think this is what Kyle meant when he said he heard music in his head during specific situations?"

"Probably," Raleigh admitted, jumping up and firing at the soldiers below them again. "Not gonna lie, I was hoping our jobs would be all that I would have in common with that kid."

"That's rude," Carter remarked, firing at the soldiers on the ground with his friend.

They continued firing as the music continued playing in their heads, before Raleigh realized...

"We gotta get the survivors out," he announced, getting back out of the line of fire.

"Yeah, sure, leave all the responsibility on me without any warning!" Carter remarked as Raleigh pulled out his phone.

Raleigh hurriedly pressed the buttons to call Julie. He placed the phone to his ear and tapped drummed his fingers against his rifle as he waited for her to answer.

"Raleigh?" she answered, confused. "Why are you calling me when you've got the earpieces?"

"Julie!" Raleigh exclaimed while breathing in and out pretty quickly. "You've got to get the fortified planes to the complex _right now!_ You gotta get all the people out."

"Raleigh, why?" Julie asked, confused. "The plan was to start the evacuation an hour before they fire the bomb. Why-?"

"There isn't time to explain!" Raleigh shouted as Carter took cover from the return fire from the soldiers. The gunfire went on for a good long while, before they looked over the ledge and saw the soldiers loading up grenade launchers. "Shit! Julie, things are being moved up. Get them the hell out of there, _now!_ I gotta go!"

Raleigh put away his phone and he and Carter grabbed their guns. They ran across the rooftop, trying to get closer to the building next to them. Once they reached the ledge was when they heard the launchers fire. They leaped forwards from the ledge towards the other building as the grenades hit the roof, blowing it up. Luckily, the two managed to catch onto the ledge of the next building, and held on tightly.

"Why does everything explode around us?" Raleigh asked.

"Things just happen," Carter remarked.

Gunfire hit the wall next to them, and the two exclaimed in surprise. Having dropped his rifle in the jump, Carter pulled a Micro Uzi from his weapons harness and turned to shoot at the soldiers on the ground, forcing them to duck to dodge the bullets. Carter then pulled himself up onto the roof before helping Raleigh up. They ran along the rooftop as the soldiers followed them on the ground.

* * *

"Oh, when we get out of here, I am getting _so_ high!" Spider exclaimed as he and Becky ran down the street.

"The boys and I are gonna join you!" Becky shouted as they ducked into an alleyway.

They ran down the alley until they found themselves in the middle of an intersecting alley, the two making a plus between the four buildings. One door was open nearby, with a darkened staircase that led to the second floor.

"In there!" Spider exclaimed, leading Becky towards the door.

They ran into the door and shut it quickly behind them. Spider saw a deadbolt on the door and turned it quickly before letting out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. The small room they were in was dark until Becky turned on a flashlight, which illuminated both of their faces and the staircase next to them leading upstairs.

"You all right?" Becky asked.

"I'm fine," Spider quickly lied. "Why do you ask?"

"What Sinclair said about your family and your sister," Becky answered. "Saying how your sister was paralyzed while searching for you... That can't be good."

Spider took in her words quickly before he sighed out, looking down. He looked back up and looked directly at her.

"You got family, Becky?" he asked. "Parents? Brother? Sister?"

"Dad skipped out on us," Becky admitted. "I was an only child, but I was real close to my cousins and other relatives. But after what happened at Necropolis, when I didn't remember anything, I pushed them further and further away. The boys and I might not have remembered what happened that night, but we still had the trauma. Throughout the rest of high school, the three of us closed off from the rest of the world. And once we got to college, we decided it was time for a change. But I haven't talked to my family since before we moved to University. And I have regretted that decision since I saw Artie get scratched."

Spider nodded his head in understanding.

"What about you?" Becky asked.

Spider paused as he tried to remember.

"I've been distant from them for years," Spider admitted. "Parents split up when I was young, both of them ended up in new relationships pretty quickly. I think I had, like, seven siblings. I honestly lost count. As I got older, I acted out more, because who wouldn't in that situation? I took my frustrations with my family and directed them towards authority. After a while, I just stopped caring. I went against everything, hence the hair. But then, when the outbreak happened in Louisville, for the first time in about four years, I was scared. Scared of the zombies, scared of possibly dying... and scared that I'd never see them again after how we parted."

Becky nodded her head in understanding.

"We both distanced ourselves from our loved ones before our lives became hell," she assessed. "And now that we're still alive, all we want is just to see them."

"Yeah," Spider agreed, nodding slowly. He sighed out. "Here's hoping it's not too late."

The sound of something hitting the door next to them caused both of them to jump. It was then that they remembered the situation they were in.

"Maybe this isn't the right place or time to have a heart to heart," Becky commented.

"Probably not," Spider agreed, nodding his head quickly.

Becky moved past Spider and led him up the stairs with her flashlight in one hand and her MP5 in the other. With Becky's light, the two reached the top of the stairs and found themselves in a second story apartment room. Spider kept his rifle raised and pointed around every inch of the trashed room as Becky cautiously led them through the dark living room into the kitchen with poor lighting.

"That is the biggest thing of dog food I have ever seen," Spider commented, gesturing to the aforementioned large bag of dog food.

"I think I see why," Becky announced.

Spider looked over at her to see her gesturing her flashlight at the refrigerator. There were pictures held up by magnets on the front and side. The most prominent was one of an old woman sitting in an armchair with several dogs around her, some on the floor, and one in her lap.

"That's a lot of dogs," Spider commented.

"Yeah..." Becky said, uncertainty growing in her voice. "But if there were that many dogs in this place... Then where are they?"

Spider widened his eyes and gripped his rifle a bit tighter in fear at her words. Looking around on the ground, the two noticed several dog bowls on the ground, some of them with blood sprayed all around. Some mixed in the water, some on the food, and some on the floor. The two of them looked up at each other with their eyes wide in realization.

"Split dogs..." Spider remembered.

"Infected rats," Becky added.

"Oh, shit," they exclaimed in unison.

The door at the bottom of the stairs burst open loudly, and the soldiers ran up quickly. Becky and Spider raised their guns just as the soldiers entered the living room and took stances, pointing their rifles right at the two. The closest soldier moved his finger from the trigger guard onto the trigger...

And he was knocked to the ground by a pit bull covered in blood. The soldiers turned in surprise as five more undead dogs ran out of the bedroom and started running towards them. The initial soldier on the floor cried out in pain as the infected dog bit into his neck, spraying blood onto the floor. Some soldiers turned and ran back down the stairs as dogs chased them, while others were tacked to the ground, their surprise overtaking them so they couldn't shoot in time.

"Good boy, Cujo," Spider commented.

"Come on," Becky told him, opening the window.

She climbed onto the counter and moved one leg out of the window. Looking down at the ground ten or fifteen feet below her, Becky winced.

"Maybe I should have brought a harness and cable," Becky joked to Spider before pushing on the frame, making her fall to the ground.

She cried out in pain as she landed roughly on the ground. Becky winced as she felt her left ankle give out a spurt of pain as she moved it. It had either broken or been sprained. Both options only made the situation more complicated.

Looking up, Becky gasped at the sight of three zombies appearing in front of her. Her MP5 had clattered nearby on the ground, so she made a reach for it, getting closer to the zombies than she would have preferred. She raised her automatic gun at the zombie and pulled the trigger, only for it to click empty. She gulped as the zombie grabbed at her...

Then the zombie's head exploded as a rifle shot rang out. What sounded like rave music appeared in Becky's head(*2) as she looked up to the second floor window to see that Spider was still perched in the window. That same music was playing in Spider's head as he shot the remaining zombies in front of Becky. A few more zombies started shuffling towards her from behind, so Spider shot them, too.

"Reload the damn gun so I can get down!" Spider exclaimed. "I'd like to get away from the dead dogs!"

Becky complied and replaced the magazine in her MP5 with a full one before giving Spider a thumbs-up. Spider nodded his head and braced himself in the windowsill with his left hand. He was about to jump out when a zombie dog roughly snapped his M4 rifle in its teeth. Spider turned back to face the dog and pulled his rifle roughly against the dog, but the dog pulled it back towards itself once again, dragging both the gun and Spider through the window again. They continued this tug a war with the gun for a little while before Spider decided it wasn't worth it.

"Fuck it," Spider exclaimed as he pushed the rifle against the zombie dog, pushing them both inside.

Unfortunately for Spider, this also caused the momentum to push him back even further out the window, causing the young punk to fall to the ground hard. He exclaimed in pain as he landed next to Becky, who had managed to push herself to her feet.

"I think I broke my ass," Spider announced.

Becky helped Spider to his feet, but made sure to not touch his back too much. That was hurting a lot, too.

"Come on," Becky announced, firing her MP9 at approaching zombies. "We gotta get outta here!"

The two limped down the road, hoping they were leading away the soldiers, while firing their guns at zombies that came near them.

* * *

Julian and Cody breathed in and out as they ran through the alleyways, knowing that the military soldiers were not too far behind them. As they ran, their breathing eventually turned quick and haggard. The two eventually hid behind a truck where they caught their breaths as quickly as they could.

"I never thought I'd say this," Cody started. "But I miss high school! Looking back, that was a cakewalk compared to this."

"Man, back then we were just taking all those lessons from Clint," Julian remembered. "Man. Who would have thought they would come so in handy nowadays?"

"Probably nobody," Cody sighed out with a slight chuckle. "Man, I miss that old son of a bitch. You think he still lives near Lincoln High?"

Automatic gunfire burst out, shattering the window above them. Cody popped up and fired his AK-47 until it ran empty, so he ducked back down and slung it back on the harness. He replaced it with an automatic shotgun and looked at Julian.

"We'll have to finish this later," Julian assessed.

"Yep," Cody agreed.

On the count of three, the two friends ran away from the truck, firing their guns back at the soldiers not far behind them as they ran down the road. Julian slid one last shell into his shotgun and pointed it one handed at the soldier's behind them. He fired and hit a man in the soldier, knocking him to the ground before discarding the empty shotgun.

The two of them exclaimed as they turned a corner and found themselves at an intersection where a bunch of cars were pressed together to serve as a barricade, blocking off the road between two fast food restaurants. The two of them looked at each other, and decided pretty quickly to go for it. They climbed up on top of the cars and jumped up over the barricade as the military soldiers rounded the corner. Cody took a grenade off of his harness and tossed it through one of the open car windows. They ran down the road towards the end of the road as the grenade went off. Luckily, the car still had power in it, so the explosion was much bigger, and ended up blowing up the other cars. The two turned back and looked at the large balls of fire rising into the air from the cars, awe struck.

"Holy sweet Jesus," Julian exclaimed.

"That was awesome," Cody announced. "And I fucking love this life now."

The two friends turned and ran to the end of the road, where multiple trees masked a specific park from their view. They ran through a walkway between the trees and ended up in a skatepark, complete with the stereotypical half pints, rails, and big rounded trenches.

"Why do I suddenly wanna drive one of the bikes down this ramp?" Cody asked, gesturing to the trench.

"That's probably the adrenaline," Julian commented. "That'll fade after a bit."

They walked around the edge of the trench, with their eyes widened a bit. A large amount of dead bodies was at the bottom of the pit, with blood splattered all around the sides of the walls. More dead bodies were all around, some of them with weapons in front of them. Lots of blood and splattered, cut up organs were splattered over various parts of the skate park, surprising them a bit from the voracity.

"Jesus, this is brutal," Cody commented.

"Very," Julian agreed, nodding his head. Then he realized something. "Wait a second..."

"What?" Cody asked.

"Some of the bodies," Julian informed him, gesturing to the bodies. "They're holding weapons."

Cody followed his finger to the sight of the bodies.

"And their grips are a little too tight for dead bodies," Cody added.

Julian reached for the AR-15 on his back just as the bodies quickly stood up. People at the bottom of the skate ramp stood up and raised various guns at them. Two men holding bladed weapons jumped up quickly and raised them, ready for an attack. A woman holding a double barreled shotgun stood a few feet from the two college students, with her gun pointed straight at them.

"Nice camouflage system," Cody commented, holding his automatic shotgun a little tightly.

"Well, dead zombies are good to hide under when you have their scents," the woman informed. "Cover yourself in infected blood, and they don't tell the difference."

"What if someone has an open wound?" Julian asked. "And the blood gets into their system?"

A couple of them looked like that thought hadn't occurred to them. One man holding a machete looked at his arm with a bit of terror in his eyes, no doubt worried about exactly what they had just said. The lead woman pointed her double barreled shotgun at the man and fired. The two college students' eyes widened as they watched half the man's face explode and his body fall to the ground.

"Okay, so you guys don't care about trying to keep each other alive," Julian assessed with shock in his voice. "That-That-That's good to know."

"You can go free," the woman announced. "Just give us your weapons and supplies, and you will be released."

"Some of these bodies have bullet holes," Cody announced. "And they don't even look like zombies!"

The woman looked at the body next to her, then looked up at Cody sheepishly.

"Okay, yeah," she admitted. "But is there really a chance either of you would shoot someone. You don't seem to-"

She was cut off by Cody shooting the other man with a knife right in the chest, making him fall dead to the ground, where some zombie blood seeped into his wound. The woman did look a little surprised.

"Okay," she nodded. "So you're not as spineless as I thought. But we still outnumber you."

She was right. There were still people with weapons pointed right at the two, lots of them holding guns. Even if Julian was more attuned to killing, he didn't like the chances of them getting out of this unscathed. Luckily for them, they overheard a nearby familiar roar, and looked up.

"Look, we're part of an evacuation squad," Julian told them. "A missile is going to hit the city in about two hours, and the government has kind of made monster zombies in this place. We can help you all get out of here alive if we move _now._"

The lead woman laughed at their words.

"Oh, please," she commented. "Like that's really going to work-"

She was interrupted when three super zombies leaped through the trees and tackled two people near the entrance Julian and Cody entered. They heard rave music in their heads(*2) as they turned in shock towards the massacre. They fired their guns as more super zombies ran out of the trees and started leaping at people around the skate park. One man who had gotten bit spazzed out and shook in a few seconds before he stopped and got up on his hands and knees. The new super zombie leaped at Cody, and he shot the zombie onto the ground dead.

Cody and Julian turned and started to run back towards where the actual entrance of the skate park was and ran as fast as they could away from the super zombies.

"Hey!" the lead woman yelled, garnering their attentions. "Does that offer still stand?"

Immediately, a super zombie grabbed her from behind and bit her right on the face. She cried out in pain as more zombies surrounded her and pinned her to the ground. Cody decided to have a heart and pulled another grenade from his harness. He pulled the pin and threw it towards the small pile. The two boys turned and started running again as the zombies and woman exploded.

"I take back what I said when the cars exploded," Cody announced as they ran out of the skate park.

"I don't blame you," Julian admitted as he fired his rifle at super zombies chasing them.

* * *

Eventually, enough time had passed for all three groups. There was an hour until the missile fired, and they had gathered together back at the hotel complex. Raleigh had a Desert Eagle handgun, Carter had an MP5K machine gun, Spider had a SPAS-12 shotgun and a TEC-9 attached to his side, Becky had her Colt handgun with an AK-47 with a handle on her back, Cody had a hunting rifle with a scope in his hands, and Julian had his crowbar in one hand and his Beretta handgun in the other.

"You guys okay?" Julian asked.

"Not really," Becky admitted, gesturing to her messed up ankle.

"I think I broke my ass," Spider announced, holding his side with his left hand.

"It's probably a bruise on your tailbone," Raleigh informed him. "Nothing too serious, but we might have to look at it when we get back."

"If we get back," Cody remarked, looking back the way they came. "More super zombies!"

One leaped towards them, and Cody shot it, hitting it in the head and making it fall to the ground. He cocked his rifle and raised it in preparation at the super zombies that were running down the road towards them.

"Let's move," Carter announced, opening the lock for the gate.

Carter slid it open as more super zombies got closer and closer. Spider raised his SPAS-12 and fired one shot into one, killing it. He pulled the trigger again, and it clicked empty. Julian then smacked the approaching super zombie in the face with his crowbar, knocking it to the ground. Since it was still twitching, he fired his Beretta into its head before following his friends through the gate. Carter did not hesitate to shut the gate quickly and re-lock the gate.

The super zombies slammed into the gate hard and pushed against the metal. They then started climbing up as they had done just two days prior, so they fired their guns to try to slow them down.

"We're gonna waste all our ammo shootin' at these fuckers!" Spider announced, firing his TEC-9.

"Let's just bail!" Becky exclaimed. "Go up the stairs as fast as we can, then get the fuck out of dodge!"

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Julian announced as he fired his handgun at the super zombies. "Them climbing through windows doesn't exactly help our situation here."

"Screw it, I'm in!" Cody announced, firing at one super zombie that was climbing up one of the walls of the building.

"Me, too!" Spider announced.

"And me!" Carter yelled.

"Me, too!" Raleigh yelled. "So we're all in agreement?"

All five of the others nodded their heads and they quickly ran away from the fence and into the front doors of the hotel complex. Cody placed his rifle on the desk and grabbed the chair behind it to brace against the door handles. A super zombie ran through the hallway entrance, and Julian shot it right in the head. Cody grabbed his rifle and pointed it at another approaching zombie, but it clicked empty. Becky saved him with her handgun.

The group immediately ran towards the staircase and up the stairs as fast as they could. Clutching their guns tightly, they fired when a super zombie appeared below or above them.

"We're almost there, guys!" Becky called out as they reached the door to the third floor. "Just a few more-"

She was cut off when a super zombie grabbed at her and pulled her into the third floor hallway. It threw her onto the floor, and she cried out in pain.

"Hey!" Julian called out in anger.

The urge to protect his friend overcame him, and he raised his crowbar in an attack. Before he could hit the super zombie, it punched him in the face and pushed him into the wall, bracing him against the wall with his weapon in front of him. Cody raised his handgun at the zombie, but then he was punched in the face by another super zombie. More of the super-powered undead started tackling the other guys into the room, and they did everything they could to make sure they didn't get bit. After a bit of tackling, Carter, Cody, and Spider had taken out their zombies with their knives, Raleigh had broken his zombie's neck with the enhanced strength from his prosthetic hand, and Julian stabbed his with the end of his crowbar.

"Becky, you okay?" Cody asked, kneeling down to their friend.

"No," Becky admitted, keeping her face down as she inspected her glasses in her hands. "Those damn things broke my glasses. I can barely see two feet in front of me without them."

"Uh, Beck?" Spider announced, nervously. "I think that's the least of your problems."

The five men looked down the hallway in front of them to see multiple super zombies running through doors and down the hallways. None of them noticed as Becky grabbed her AK-47 and untied her pigtails. They were too busy desperately reaching into their ammo pockets for fresh clips or magazines for their guns.

"We're not doing so hot on ammo!" Cody announced, slipping his last clip into his Glock.

"I'm not liking our chances!" Carter admitted, hoping he still had one more magazine for his MP5K.

"Guys..." Becky's suddenly cold sounding voice announced.

They turned to see Becky standing there with her hair down and her AK-47 in her hands. She cocked the chamber and raised it up in the air. A cold look was in her eyes that Julian and Cody hadn't seen since Necropolis, and actually frightened the two of them a bit.

"Get down," she continued, pointing her rifle forwards.

"Uh, you can't see," Raleigh remarked.

"Exactly," Becky informed them.

Raleigh and Spider exclaimed as they ducked down onto the floor in front of her. Julian and Carter moved aside to her right, and Cody moved to her left. With rapid fire engaged, Becky fired at the horde of super zombies running towards them from the end of the hallway, aiming every shot towards the heads, and mowing them down pretty quickly. Raleigh and Spider looked up at her in amazement as she fired at the dead, both of them in awe. Once all the zombies were down on the ground, Becky finally lowered her rifle while breathing in and out.

Raleigh and Spider both stood up and stared at her, amazement still in their eyes.

"That was awesome," Spider remarked. "And I have never seen you like this before. You really are a badass."

"It's kind of hot," Raleigh admitted.

"Very," Spider admitted, nodding his head.

Becky smiled at their compliments, then turned away from the two.

"Shut up, Trey," she told them as she walked to the door to the stairs.

Both Raleigh and Spider were surprised by her words, while Cody and Julian were trying and failing to hold back laughs.

"Why do you think she wears her hair in pigtails?" Cody asked while laughing.

"She ran out of comeback insults for the guys she didn't like hitting on her," Julian informed them, laughing as he and Cody followed Becky to the stairs.

Carter laughed as he went after them, soon followed by Raleigh and Spider. They ran up the stairs and onto the roof, where they saw that an armored helicopter was close on the horizon.

"All right!" Cody exclaimed, excited.

"Bitching, man!" Carter exclaimed in equal excitement.

The six teammates smiled at each other in relief and happiness before looking up at the approaching chopper once again. The helicopter got closer and closer...

Then a rocket flew up through the air and hit the front of the helicopter, causing an explosion that blew out the front windows and covered the pilots. The friends watched in shock and sadness as the helicopter fell through the air, past the apartment complex, and to the ground behind it, causing a large explosion that they could even see from their position on the roof.

The six commandos watched in sadness and woe as their only way out of town burned on the ground.

"Oh, fuck!" Spider exclaimed in sadness.

"That..." Becky stuttered out while gesturing to where the helicopter was. "That-that... What do we do now?"

She looked to be close to tears as she looked at her friends. Julian had to admit, he was close nearing that point himself, knowing he might never see Jenny again.

"There..." Raleigh announced. "There has to be a way. Carter, can't we..."

"It'd work for us," Carter reminded him. "But these guys don't have the same powers we do. Plus, he's not our Spider. They'd all disintegrate?"

"What do you mean, 'your Spider'?" Cody asked in confusion.

"Oh, they're from another dimension," Spider informed them. "Apparently they can open portals to and from different dimensions, and in their dimension, there's a version of me that co-supplies them weed. But people that don't have special powers, like they and their friends have, they can't go through those portals. As these guys just said, they'll disintegrate."

Julian, Becky, and Cody took in his words with shock and awe, and Carter and Raleigh were visibly stunned.

"_What!?_" Julian, Becky, and Cody said in unison.

"You remembered that?" Raleigh asked, surprised. "We were high!"

"I remember more when I'm high than I do when I'm straight," Spider admitted. "That's why I was stoned through half the classes I went to in high school."

"You are literally not different from our Spider at all," Carter commented. "Well, except he uses a mini-gun, but that's it."

They were cut off from saying anything else when the door to the stairs kicked open, depositing soldiers. One military helicopter flew up above them, and soldiers rappelled down onto the roof. The dozen or so soldiers surrounded the rooftop, along with many super zombies that had climbed up the walls. The group of six made themselves into a circle around each other, and took stock of their remaining weapons. All Julian had left was his crowbar, since his Beretta was empty. Cody just had his Glock handgun left, Spider had a bit left in his TEC-9, Raleigh had one Zigana Sport FS9 handgun left, Carter was down to his machete, and Becky just had her Colt handgun. They had used up all their grenades during their conquests, but they each still had knives hidden in their jackets. (Except for Raleigh, who was still adamant at just wearing the leather pants and grey shirt he had been in since they arrived in town.)

"I don't like our chances," Raleigh admitted.

"If I'm going down, I'm going down fightin'," Spider announced.

"That's exactly how I planned to go out," Carter announced.

"Stay optimistic," Julian informed them, not noticing one specific soldier had rappelled near him. "We survived Necropolis and the Rave. We can survive-"

He was cut off when a rifle stock hit him right in the face, knocking him to the ground. Julian looked up through his suddenly blurry vision to see Sinclair standing above him on the ground. The crowbar had clattered nearby, but Julian didn't like his chances with Sinclair over him, and a gun in the man's hands.

"Sorry, Mr. Garrison," Sinclair told Julian, whose vision was getting more blurry by the second. "You might've survived those two outbreaks, but you're not gonna survive this."

The man's voice became more muffled until Julian gave into unconsciousness, terrified about what was happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, zombie dogs has been done to death (literally), but they did prove in all the other movies that the gas affects animals, too. I just forgot that bit until I recently rewatched the movies as part of the quarantine
> 
> *1. The tune they're hearing after the bar is Codetrasher's Danger Danger --- House of the Dead might be a bad movie, but it doesn't have half bad tunes, imo  
*2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf5z0P05_NU&t=4s The theme they hear in their heads there. Like I said, the themes in that movie aren't half bad imo
> 
> Holy shit, I amaze myself at how long these chapters end up being!


	13. Demolition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The town of Elswood is destroyed, but not before Sinclair decides to drop one more bomb on Julian's already pretty bad day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The group finally leaves Elswood, and the zombies are all killed

After a little while, Julian's vision started to return as he slowly woke back up. Through the spots in his eyes, he managed to take stock of the situation on the roof. He was lying on his side on the floor, with his weapons harness and backpack gone. The crowbar he was using was right next to his head, but when he tried to grab it, he noticed something that was bound to cause problems. His wrists were bound together behind his back with a zip-tie, preventing him from doing much. Looking around, he saw his five friends and allies on their knees, their harnesses and bags also gone.

"Well, look who's finally awake!" a scratchy, familiar voice taunted.

Julian looked further around to see the dozen or so soldiers gathered around the group, their rifles prepared for anything. Super zombies were along the edges of the building, waiting for any orders from Sinclair, staring at the six friends' heads in hunger. Sinclair himself stood in the center of the semi-circle that Julian's friends were in.

"You know, we've got about twenty-five more minutes before the missile launches and the town blows," Sinclair announced. "How 'bout we use them as friends?"

"Sorry, but I'm not interested in no orgy," Spider joked.

Sinclair shot him a dirty look, but otherwise ignored him.

"You know, Garrison, you are just as annoying as your uncle told me," the sergeant informed Julian. "You're too loyal to your friends, you're a little too crafty for my liking, and you think that we need to be saving all of these people."

"What's wrong with wanting to protect people from getting their heads eaten?" Raleigh asked.

"Raleigh," Sinclair said, looking over to Raleigh with scorn in his eyes. "This is a conversation between me and Mr. Garrison. Now, if you don't mind..."

The soldier closest to Raleigh smacked him in the face with the stock of his rifle. Raleigh exclaimed in pain as he fell to the ground hard.

"Don't interrupt me again," Sinclair told Raleigh before looking at Julian again.

Unbeknownst to Sinclair and the soldiers, Julian had slipped one hand into the back of his jacket and slowly started sliding the blade up and down the zip-tie, doing his best to hide it from the super zombies. But he knew he was all right, since they were too busy staring at his and his friends heads to pay attention to his hands.

"So, Julian," Sinclair continued, walking over to Julian slightly to get a better look. "How does it feel to soon be re-united with your dead family? Are you happy? Are you sad? Are you in pain?"

Sinclair added flair to the last one and kicked Julian right in the stomach. Julian groaned in pain as he rolled back slightly, partly to help the pain, and partly to disguise him cutting the knife better.

"Ah!" Julian groaned out. "You know, it feels about the same as the other, twelve or thirteen times I came close to death." He looked up at Sinclair with a challenge in his eyes. "I survived all those times, what makes you think I won't survive this?"

Sinclair smiled at his words.

"Ah," he remarked. "As bold and determined as your dim-witted uncle. The only time he ever did anything that even remotely interested me was when he requested I have someone kill your parents."

"Dude, I get it," Julian croaked out, closing his eyes in exasperation. "My uncle was a sick son of a bitch that hated his entire family. So, when my parents volunteered at Hybra, he had you get someone to intentionally drive them off the road to kill them."

Sinclair laughed wickedly, and happily at Julian's words.

"Oh, yeah," he laughed. "Yeah, right, like I would have just some random soldier do something I could have easily done."

Julian opened his eyes and looked at his friends. They stared at him with equal confusion before they all looked at Sinclair.

"What are you talking about?" Julian asked, looking right at Sinclair's smug face.

The sergeant chuckled and kneeled down slightly to get a better look at Julian.

"Why would I have some man drive a tan station wagon off the road," Sinclair explained with a smug, evil smirk on his face. "When I could just as easily do it myself?"

Julian's eyes widened in shock and growing rage as he looked up at Sinclair in realization.

"_You _killed my parents?" Julian asked, softly, but very clear rage in his voice.

"I wanted to kill someone that day," Sinclair admitted, as if _that_ was a good enough explanation for the teen. "Oh, and believe me, I _really_ wanted to do more than just make their car crash. I wanted to fill them with bullet holes, or cut them to pieces and feed them to our Evolved Dead. But... Charles insisted it had to look like an accident to the authorities. If anything happened to their bodies in any way, Hybra would have had to been searched by authorities that didn't know what was going on, and the press would have had a field day with that."

Julian looked up at the man above him with rage growing in his eyes. Slowly but surely, he raised his torso up slightly so he could make better eye contact with the man while still hiding that he was sawing through the zip-tie. He breathed in and out as he stared at the evil sergeant.

"I'm gonna kill you," Julian told him in silent determination.

Sinclair smirked.

"And how are you gonna do that?" he chuckled.

"This," Julian quickly announced.

He head-butted Sinclair, causing the man to reel back a bit while covering his face with his left hand. Fighting through the pain in his head, Julian cut through the last bit of his zip-tie, then quickly stood up. He raised his hand with the knife, and the soldiers raised their rifles. But they were stopped from shooting when Sinclair laughed and gestured for them to lower their guns.

"Don't bother," Sinclair instructed them, lowering his hand from his face. "After what I just told him, I think he's more than earned this."

Sinclair took his handgun from its holster and put it on the ground between Cody and Becky, who were looking up at the man with anger in their eyes.

"Let him have his fun," Sinclair finished as he turned towards Julian.

Julian raised his knife and threw it right towards Sinclair. The sergeant moved out of the way and the knife flew past him, right into the shoulder of the now on his knees Raleigh, who exclaimed in pain as he fell onto his back.

"Ooh," Julian winced. "Sorry!"

"You get one more of those!" Raleigh called out.

Julian brushed off his confusion and looked on the ground for anything that could help him. Seeing his crowbar nearby, he leaned down and picked it up. Crowbar in hand, Julian turned to Sinclair and raised the weapon in preparation.

He charged at the still smiling sergeant and swung his crowbar, which Sinclair dodged. Julian repeated the attack a few times, each one once again being dodged by the bald man. Julian finally managed to hit Sinclair on the right side of his face with his crowbar, which caused the man to reel back again with his hand on his wound. Sinclair removed his hand from his cheek and looked at it, before looking at Julian with a smile on his face.

"That actually hurt!" Sinclair announced with a laugh. "I think you actually knocked out a tooth!"

"Are you crazy?" Julian asked in confusion. "Why the hell are you excited?"

"Because your luck's just run out," Sinclair announced.

That was proven the next time Julian swung his crowbar at the man. Sinclair caught the crowbar with his left hand, and punched Julian in the face with his opposite hand. This caused Julian to fall back onto the ground, but lose his grip on his crowbar. Julian once again fought through the pain in his face and looked up at Sinclair, who tossed Julian's crowbar aside.

"Time for you to use your fists," Sinclair announced, raising his own fists in preparation.

"Dude, I'm not interested in an orgy, either," Julian tried joking to lighten the mood.

Sinclair groaned in annoyance.

"This is why I never had kids," the sergeant muttered as Julian stood back up.

Julian had his fists raised, ready to fight. He jabbed with his left fist, brushing the man in the cheek, before full on cross punching strongly with his right fist, making the man reel back a bit. Julian howled in pain as he clutched his right fist, which hurt from the punch. Sinclair looked back up at Julian, another smug smirk on his face.

"I have a really hard head," Sinclair informed the teen.

He punched Julian in the face again, making sure to add a lot of force into it. Julian reeled back in pain, and stood up with a bit of wooziness in his stance. Julian tried to punch Sinclair again, but the man caught it and pulled the teen in a bit. He stomped Julian's left ankle with more force, which caused a very loud "crack." Julian howled in pain again before following to the ground again. Sinclair followed it up by kicking Julian right in the stomach, causing him to groan in pain once again.

Watching Sinclair beat down their friend was too much for the five others. Luckily, Cody and Becky still had their knives, and they were following Julian's example of sawing through their own zip-ties. The two of them managed to figure out a plan of action with their eyes, but were still deciding which one of them would get Sinclair's sidearm that was between the two of them.

"This is what happens when you mess with people like me," Sinclair informed Julian, crouching down to get a better look at him. "You and your friends are gonna die, right here, right now, and me and my boys are gonna get out of here and get drunk as fuck."

The sound of an engine roaring drew the attention of everyone on the roof to the air. Everyone looked up in surprise to see a large, grey and black aerial vehicle that was definitely NOT a helicopter was flying towards them. The ship flew towards the top of the complex, and turned slightly, revealing all kinds of retractable weapons along the side and on the wings, along with a slide-open door on the side that was still closed. A window near the front showed Rigby, Julie, and Frodo in the cockpit. They saw Rigby press a button on the console before looking out the window onto the rooftop, particularly at Sinclair.

"I don't think so, sergeant dickhead!" Rigby called out through the ship's speakers, confusing everyone on the rooftop. "You're still wearing the earpiece, dumb-ass! And we never cut off the network, even if you did. We can hear you, but you could never hear us."

Sinclair ripped the earpiece out of his ear and threw it off the roof, annoyance on his face.

"Sorry, Sinclair, but you didn't count on one thing when you trapped them up here," Julie announced through the speaker. "Their friends didn't feel like letting them die today."

The side door slid open slightly, showing six people. Jenny, Chuck, Casey, Lucy, Tom, and even Jessie had harnesses attaching them to the ships as they held rifles or automatic weapons, pointing them right at the super zombies. There were also two nearby blasters on the side of the ship, with Gino and Aldo visible from the glass reflections, clearly ready to fire.

"You know what?" Frodo announced from the speakers. "This party's not crazy enough!"

He pressed a button on the console, and a rock theme started playing out of the speakers, which actually felt right for the situation(*1).

"Best thing Kyle's every granted us," Carter commented, laughing at the music.

The super zombies on the roof roared at the ship, and started lunging at it. The people on board fired their guns at the Evolved Dead, shooting them right out of the sky. The gunfire garnered the attention of a nearby horde of zombies, which started limping to the hotel. However, the firing from the ship also provided Cody and Becky to carry out their plan. They finished cutting through their zip-ties, and Cody stabbed the soldier closest to him in the neck. Becky picked up Sinclair's dropped handgun and fired it at more soldiers or super zombies.

Sinclair gritted his teeth and started to stand up, right before Julian punched him in the nose. The two stood up and twirled around a bit before facing each other, their fists raised in preparation again.

"Don't think you're getting out of this easily," Julian informed him.

"Only means you're gonna die faster," Sinclair remarked.

Sinclair jabbed at Julian's head, which he ducked under before trying to uppercut the man. It wasn't as successful as he'd hoped, but it did something.

Cody, meanwhile, and grabbed the rifle of the soldier he had killed, and gave Spider his knife to help the man get out. Cody fired at the soldiers that tried attacking them, killing them instead. When one got close to Carter, he launched himself onto his front, then wrapped his legs around the soldier's leg. He applied pressure, and forced the soldier to the ground. With a lot of difficulty, Carter, moved his hands under his legs, moving them in front of himself. He gripped the soldier by the head and turned it with force, causing a loud crack as he broke the man's neck. With his hands still bound, Carter grabbed the man's dropped rifle and fired at whatever super zombies or soldiers were left.

This particularly helped because Raleigh was keeping a super zombie back with his raised legs' The zombie was a little dumb to try to bite one of his legs, so Carter shot it in the head. This calmed down Raleigh enough to slide the glove off of his prosthetic hand. He detached his prosthetic hand and slipped the stump out of the zip-tie, freeing his hands.

The ship then landed on the apartment roof, and Jenny, Chuck, and Casey detached themselves from the harnesses. They joined in shooting at the zombies and soldiers on the roof, saving their friends.

"Hey, Spider!" Chuck called out with excitement as he walked over to his friend who was on his knees. "This is definitely the coolest thing we've ever been a part of!"

"You're right about that," Spider remarked as Chuck grabbed the knife in Spider's hands.

Chuck did his friend a favor and finished sawing the zip-tie around his friend's wrists, and helped him get out. Spider grabbed a nearby rifle on the ground, and helped his friends in firing at the remaining soldiers and super zombies.

In her firing, Jenny had gotten close to her friends, and kept firing at the enemies around them.

"How you guys been?" she asked as she shot down a super zombie nearby.

"Oh, you know," Becky told her nonchalantly. "Surviving."

"Killing," Cody added as he shot down another soldier that was trying to sneak attack Casey.

"Thanks, Code!" Casey called out as she fired at super zombies nearby.

Raleigh, meanwhile, had re-attached his prosthetic hand and pulled the knife out of his shoulder and used it to get the zip-tie from around Carter's wrists, making it a bit easier for him to fire. He then grabbed another handgun from the ground and helped fire at the remaining super zombies and soldiers.

Jenny, Cody, and Becky then finally noticed Julian's fight with Sinclair. Julian was holding his own, but still wasn't doing to well against the sergeant. Cody raised his rifle towards Sinclair, but Becky stopped him.

"No, Code," she informed him. They looked towards the two fighting. "This is something Julian needs to do on his own.(*2)"

"No, it's not!" Julian screamed as Sinclair clutched Julian by his shoulders.

"Oh, okay," Becky said with nonchalant as the three raised their guns at Sinclair.

They all fired, careful not to hit their friends. Becky hit Sinclair in the right shoulder, Cody hit him in the lower back and ass, and Jenny hit him in his legs. Sinclair exclaimed in pain as the bullets tore through the parts of him armor wasn't covering, and fell to the ground. The three rushed forwards, Becky and Cody picking up Sinclair and pointing their guns right at his head, Jenny going to help up Julian.

"Julian," Jenny breathed out in relief when she saw he was still alive.

"Jenny," Julian breathed out as he fell into her with a hug, which she reciprocated.

The two breathed in and out a bit as they held each other while the mayhem continued around them.

"Guys!" Raleigh called out, getting everyone's attentions. "Four and a half minutes to six! Let's get the hell out of here!"

Carter, Casey, and Chuck followed him to the ship, where the others were waiting. Spider, meanwhile, ran over to join Cody and Becky in dragging Sinclair to the edge of the roof, and they were soon followed by Julian and Becky. The others on the ship continued to provide cover fire against the remaining super zombies.

"You should be proud!" Sinclair laughed out, insanely. "All of this, and you managed to survive _another _outbreak. So many times you could have died, but you survived! Think about all the publicity you could get!"

"Man, shut the fuck up already!" Spider snapped. Becky and Cody held Sinclair by his arms as the man kneeled on the ledge, blood pouring out of his wounds as Becky kept her handgun pressed against the sergeant's bald head. "Publicity is a real dumb thing to be your last thought."

"Wait!" Sinclair exclaimed, desperation in his voice as Julian raised his arm from around Jenny and walked up to face the sergeant. Sinclair looked right at Julian with pleading in his eyes. "Think clearly about this. There are dozens of agents out there, with their own barrels of Tryoxin-5 or 2-4-5 Trioxin, and their own plans for it. Killing me won't stop them."

"You're right," Julian admitted, causing Sinclair to smile in relief. Julian breathed in and out as he leaned forwards a bit so that the sergeant got a better look at the silent anger in his eyes. "But who fucking cares?"

Sinclair's eyes widened in realization at the calm, angry tone of Julian's voice. Standing up straight, Julian stood on his right foot and put as much force into his left foot as he could as he kicked Sinclair in the chest, making the sergeant fall off of the roof, and fall down the three stories to the ground, hard.

Sinclair groaned in pain as he hit the ground, feeling that his legs, and possibly what was left of his back were both broken. He groaned as he looked up through the spots in his eyes, which then widened at the sight in front of him.

"Brains!" a female zombie yelled before it and many other zombies lunged at the sergeant.

On the roof, the five teammates watched as Sinclair screamed out in pain as the zombies started ripping open his head and eating his brains.

"That was for my parents," Julian muttered out with cold rage.

Cody, Becky, and Spider patted their friend on the shoulder and back as they stood there with him, watching the sergeant on the ground being eaten. Roaring engines garnered their attentions again, and they saw that the ship was already in the air, with the open side door waist level in the air. Some of them groaning out in pain, the five of them climbed up into the ship and laid on the floor, exhaustion rolling over them.

With Rigby, Julie, and Frodo in the pilot's seats, they flew the ship over the town of Elswood, soon quickly reaching the edge of town, just as the missile came into view. The ship flew past the missile and towards the sunrise as they finally closed the side door of the ship. Everyone winced as they felt the ground far below them shake as the missile hit the center of town, causing a gigantic ball of fire to cover the entire place in a mushroom explosion.

"And just like that," Raleigh panted out. "The town of Elswood is gone."

"Who knows how many people died," Tom announced, guilt in his voice.

"We did all we could," Spider informed him. "We at least got out about a hundred plus survivors alive. Most of them in one piece."

"And we live to see another day," Becky announced with a slight chuckle before reaching for her still bruised ankle with a wince in pain.

"Hold still," Lucy instructed Becky, placing an ice pack against her ankle to try to ease the pain. "This'll help a bit."

"Thanks," Becky told her.

Julian was sitting against a wall of the ship and wincing each time the ship bumped, causing something on him that hurt to move. Jessie and Jenny had grabbed ice packs as well. Jenny was holding one against Julian's bruised ankle, and Jessie handed his to the teen.

"With how many places you got hit," Jessie explained. "I honestly can't tell which part needs the pack more."

"Thanks," Julian said, taking the offered ice pack and pressing it first to his face, then his chest.

"Man, you fought a highly trained military sergeant with your bare hands," Jessie commented. "You're one ballsy motherfucker."

Everyone laughed at the boy's choice of words.

"That's my boy," Cody announced, proudly. "He's a ballsy motherfucker."

Cody punched Julian on the shoulder in affirmation, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Sorry," Cody said with embarrassment on his face, and Julian waved off the move, indifference on his face.

"Everything we did," Julian admitted. "It still doesn't feel like a win. Yeah, we got people out, and I avenged my parents... but not much has changed. They're still gone, the Trioxin's still out there, and who knows what people will do with it?"

"You're right," Raleigh admitted. "Those are still problems we have. But..."

Raleigh pulled out his smartphone, and then Julian remembered his own smartphone. He pulled it out and brought up the files he had downloaded: the video conferences between Charles, Sinclair, and the third associate. He made eye contact with Raleigh, who smirked and nodded his head. Julian felt hope rising in his chest at the realization.

"Trust me," Raleigh assured him. "They're not getting away with this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EAW1bRTKHc&t=1s - the music playing from the ship's speakers. Believe me, that is NOT the game that this music belongs in  
*2. Yes, that was stolen from Firefly. But I recently started re-watching it during quarantine, and have been reminded of how much I love that sci-fi western  
3\. Damn, it is really easy to get stuff done without YouTube references for everything. I finished this entire chapter in an hour and a half


	14. The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the mess of Elswood, a few things are revealed to both the people of America, and the group of survivors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna be honest, when I first saw Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis, I thought Cody said he got accepted into Florida University, and them claiming FU helped cement that in my mind. But I recently discovered tubi, which Necropolis is on, which has access to subtitles, and that revealed he actually said Farley University. That bit there was entirely why I say they're in Florida here. I will change the Florida references I have in this story, because I managed to find a Lincoln High and Farley University in Michigan, so I'll maybe change the location to that in the story. Or maybe New York. In Rave To The Grave, the truck Gino and Aldo drove in had New York license plates, which I just figured was one of those traveling things

The team stopped by a large news station where they dropped off copies of the files and pictures they had taken from Elswood, and explained as much as they could to the people in charge there. Copies, because they felt they needed to keep the originals just in case. Once that was over, they went back to the Unlimited complex back in Michigan, and they patched themselves up professionally. Everyone was okay enough. No one was infected, so that was a major plus.

"Hey, it's almost time!" Rigby announced, keeping track on his watch.

It was nearing noon the day after the nuke dropped, where the news casters had informed the group that they'd be ready to start the segment. The large group gathered in the living room, with the largest TV turned on to the station. Jenny sat with Julian and Becky on one couch, with Cody and Spider sitting on the floor in front of it. Casey, Chuck, and Jessie sat on the couch on the right to them, with Tom and Lucy sitting on the floor in front of it. On the couch left to Julian and them sat Burt, Doc Mandel, and Aldo, with Gino sitting on the floor in front of them. John Reynolds stood with Rigby, Raleigh, Julie, Frodo, and Carter around the couches, watching the news report with everyone else.

"Hello," Richard Burke, the ginger haired newscaster announced. "Today, we are discussing the unfortunate fate of the town of Elswood, Alabama, which was destroyed yesterday morning with no warning."

"Officials informed us that the town's nuclear power station had a meltdown," Jennifer Hawes, the blonde newscaster next to Richard announced. "But... we have been given proof that these claims are not true."

Up came the picture Raleigh had taken of the Tryoxin-5 barrel that was attached to the town's water supply he and Becky had found.

"The chemical in the barrel has been identified as Tryoxin-5," Jennifer explained. "It is a strain of the 2-4-5-Trioxin that was developed by the Darrow Chemical company back in 1969. They developed the chemical as a part of the war on marijuana. Unfortunately, both strains had unfortunate side effects... Brace your eyes, sensitive viewers."

The picture Raleigh had taken of the Tarman they found appeared on the screen on the side. Underneath the image of Tarman appeared the clips Raleigh showed the group of the outbreak happening in Elswood, with the zombies swarming around people, and people jerking around before turning. Clips then appeared of survivors running through the town, being guided by the group of heroes that had gone there.

"It appears the zombies that Hybra Tech claimed they took out weren't all of them," Richard commented. A still from one of the images of the meeting between Charles, Sinclair, and the third man then appeared. "As evidence by former Hybra Tech CEO Bernard Lawrence here in discussion with top scientist of the corporation, Charles Garrison, and former Sergeant of Defense, Alonso Sinclair. This next part may shock you..."

They then played the clip from October 9th, 2004, where the three discussed the plans for the Techno Dead and the Evolved Dead.

"Now, Techno Dead sound like sounds like a bad emo band from the 80's," Jennifer commented to try to relieve some tension. It didn't exactly work.

"You told her to say that, didn't you?" Cody asked, looking up at Julian.

"No," Julian denied, offense on his still bruised face.

"Begged her?" Becky asked.

Julian looked at her with the offense still on his face and an eyebrow raised. At Becky's raised eyebrows, he dropped the act.

"Got on my knees and everything," Julian admitted. "Kind of hurt with how my leg was bruised."

"Was it worth it?" Jenny asked, slight smile on her face.

"No," Julian admitted, looking down in shame.

The clip then showed to show Sinclair, Charles, and Bernard Lawrence just a few weeks ago, discussing their plans for future planned outbreaks. The clip then ended, and Jennifer and Richard put their hands to the earpieces they were wearing.

"Sorry, everyone, but it looks like this report is being taken over by the Press Secretary," Richard announced.

"Indeed, Rich," Jennifer agreed. "The cameras are being moved to a meeting that our country's Press Secretary, Kelsey Newman, is having with other news officials. To be honest, this might be the first time I've ever been okay with having our news upstaged."

The screen became static for a second before it changed to a podium with red velvet curtains behind it. Kelsey Newman, a woman with greying dark hair tied back into a ponytail, wearing glasses and a suit, stood at the podium, no doubt looking out at the cameras in front of her.

"My fellow Americans," Newman announced. "Those images and videos you saw on the news just now... I am sad to admit: they are true."

There were gasps on the screen, and the main group watching exchanged looks of confusion with each other.

"What are you up to?" Raleigh muttered.

"In 1969, the United States Army had the Darrow chemical company develop the 2-4-5-Trioxin," Newman admitted. "We wanted to combat the war on weed, but instead, it reanimated dead bodies into brain eating corpses. The Army has been doing various things with the chemical, trying to cover up the traces it ever existed, and going to great lengths... Such as the destruction of Louisville, Kentucky, back in 1984."

"They admitted to it!?" Chuck asked in shock.

"Since then, the government instituted a paramilitary coup to try to combat the growing range of hypersapians," Newman continued. "We call them AMS. They've done their best to combat the problems with zombies, unfortunately to very little effect. Surprisingly, like us, they thought all traces of 2-4-5-Trioxin, and the subsequent Tryoxin-5 were all destroyed. For the last thirty years, we honestly thought we were teaching them skills they wouldn't be needing."

"Oh, yeah, Charles mentioned AMS in that one video," Cody remarked. "They grilled him after the Hybra outbreak. Guess they were excited to finally put their training to use."

"We were led to believe that the chemicals were destroyed, along with the last of the zombie specimens, by Hybra Tech," Newman continued. "Based off of the carnage last year that caused Hybra Tech to go under, along with the outbreak in Elswood, Alabama, it seems we were mislead. Our hearts and prayers go out to all the innocent lives that were taken in both outbreaks. If only we could have found out sooner..."

"Yeah, then you'd 'sanitize' those situations, too," Jessie commented.

"We only lied to try to protect people from the truth," Newman admitted. "But I guess we have no choice now... About thirteen years ago, the barrels had disappeared, not long after another paramilitary group called Annetto formed. The group of Annetto remained silent and closed off with their actions... but have since claimed responsibility for the outbreaks at Hybra, one that happened not too long ago at Farley University in Michigan, and the one in Elswood. They have since disbanded from the government, and are currently being pursued for their terrorist actions."

"There it is," Rigby commented, disappointment on his face.

"Create a fake organization to blame all their misdeeds on," John assessed. "Why am I not surprised?"

"But they're not responsible for the outbreak at the university," Cody remarked, shame on his face. "I was..."

"We do not know how long the search for Annetto will take," Newman continued on the TV. "The worst part is: we don't have any leads on where to look, or where any of these 'planned' outbreaks will happen. But, there is some good news..."

"While we mourn the losses of the good people we've lost over these many years," she continued. "We can revel in the fact that we have new heroes that are fighting for us."

The group watching the news report was confused, before the TV cut away to clips that surprised most of them.

It seemed the traffic cams in Elswood were still active, because it started showing clips of Julian, Cody, Becky, Spider, Carter, and Raleigh going through Elswood, helping people. Julian pumped his shotgun before firing it at approaching zombies. Cody reluctantly put down a man the man that was bit in the sports shop. Becky and Spider jumped out of the second story apartment, being chased by zombie dogs. The entire group was at the fence in the apartment complex, firing at the approaching super zombies.

"The particularly nasty looking zombies are what we guess are these Evolved Dead," Newman explained. "But if it wasn't for the six of these people, then there wouldn't have been any survivors of this outbreak, and the news wouldn't have come to light for all of us to know. Now, the two gentlemen in the black leather ensembles haven't been recognized, but the same could not be said with the other four..."

The screen showed a clip of Julian pumping his shotgun while it was parallel to his body before pointing it at a zombie, and the video stopped.

"This is Julian Garrison," Newman explained. "He was raised by his parents, Robert and Estelle Garrison, along with his little brother, Jake. He is a resident of Michigan, and went to Lincoln High before moving on to Farley University with his friends, Cody and Rebecca. Robert's brother happened to be Charles Garrison, and we can assume that based on the man explaining to former Sergeant Sinclair to make it look like an accident, means that the car crash that killed Robert and Estelle was intentional. Our hearts go to mister Julian, as he also lost little Jake in the Hybra outbreak last year. But even though his family had died because of Annetto and the zombies, he put life and limb on the line to save as many people in Elswood as he could. He never even killed anyone... Until he kicked Sergeant Sinclair off of a roof into a group of zombies. But, the man was the one driving the car that killed his parents, so I think we'll let that one slide."

The screen showed Cody shooting a super zombie out of the air, before pointing his rifle at another super zombie before the video stopped.

"This is Cody Cavanaugh," Newman explained. "One of Julian's oldest friends from Lincoln High school, and one of his most trusted allies, as evidenced by how well they worked together in the outbreak. Now, Mr. Cavanaugh had a bit of a habit in high school of hacking into the school database to change his and his friends' grades, but that's not important. What is important is that he worked with Mr. Garrison to fight off against the zombies at both Hybra and in Elswood, not hesitating to help each other. They saved dozens of residents of the town, together."

The screen then showed Becky with her still cracked glasses stabbing zombies through the gate of the apartment complex gate with the wooden stake she had grabbed, before the video stopped, showing an image of her irritated face.

"This is Rebecca Carlton," Newman explained. "Known to her friends as Becky. She is another Michigander that attended Lincoln High and Farley University with Mr. Garrison and Mr. Cavanaugh. The three of them have been apparently been friends since childhood, and did a lot of stuff together. She was also there at Hybra during the first outbreak, and dispatched of their two experimental Techno Dead herself. While she appears to be small, she is much stronger than she looks. Not only did she survive the Hybra outbreak, but she helped Garrison and Cavanaugh while at Farley and Elswood. They managed to fight of the zombies while saving a lot of people, together."

The screen then showed a clip of Spider knocking aside zombies with a sledgehammer he had grabbed. He raised the hammer in a ready position and the video stopped.

"This has been identified as Trey Lerner," Newman explained. "Mr. Lerner was one of the confirmed victims of the Louisville destruction, but it seems to not be the case. In fact, he looks pretty young for a man in his mid forties, wouldn't you say? Our best guess: cryogenic sleep. Someone put him on ice and took him out for a specific reason. Based on the videos of him fighting zombies with the five others in these clips, I'd say we found that reason."

"Ah, great, now everyone knows my real name!" Spider exclaimed, upset.

"Spider, she just announced that we fought through a city full of zombies to save people," Julian reminded him. "We're not supposed to draw attention to ourselves, and she just outed us!"

"Yeah, that's bad, too," Spider commented, waving at Julian in a nonchalant manner.

"These four fought through a city full of reanimated corpses in order to help save people," Newman continued. "And for that... I thank them."

Everyone's surprise became confusion once again.

"The four of them, with the help of those two unknown individuals, managed to fight through Annetto's defenses, save over a hundred people, and bring the truth to the eyes of America," Newman explained. "The best that we can put together is that the vehicle they left town in was branded, 'Unlimited.' Our best guess is that the corporation of Unlimited has resources far beyond those we can guess and recruited these four, and who knows how many others to combat the threat of the zombies. And for that... I say thank you. Julian Garrison, Cody Cavanaugh, Rebecca Carlton, Trey Lerner, and everyone else a part of Unlimited, thank you for doing this great service to your country. You have done us all a favor, and should be rewarded for your efforts. I think a lot of people will sleep better knowing that you protected them from the dead. And I hope you'll help your country again when the need arises against the dead."

Raleigh grabbed the remote and pointed it at the TV, hitting the power button. Once the screen went black, he faced the crowd behind him.

"Well, that went better than I expected," Raleigh admitted.

"I wasn't exactly planning on being praised by our Press Secretary this week," Becky admitted. "Then again, I didn't think I'd be killing hundreds of zombies and dozens of people this week, either."

"The craziness of this life," Julie announced. "You get used to it."

"God, I hope not," Cody muttered to himself.

"This is a good thing, though," Raleigh announced. "Now you guys are household names, which means more and more people see you as the good guys. You can take care of 'Annetto's' attacks of zombie outbreaks, all the while getting closer and closer to exposing the military for what they've been doing."

"That's a good idea," John announced. "We'll be able to get further and further on the inside, and eventually get what we need to put them all away."

"Sounds like a plan," Spider announced.

"Agreed," Chuck announced.

"Agreed," Casey announced.

"Agreed," Burt announced.

"Agreed," Jessie announced.

"Agreed," Lucy announced.

"Agreed," Tom announced.

"Agreed," Doc Mandel announced.

"Agreed," Julian announced.

"Agreed," Cody announced.

"Agreed," Becky announced.

"Agreed," Jenny announced.

"Agreed," Aldo announced.

"Agreed," Gino announced.

"Well, now that we've got that out of the way," Spider remarked, looking up at Raleigh. "Time for you guys to explain."

Raleigh sighed out and looked at his associates for help.

"Yes, we are from another dimension," Carter announced. "We traveled here through portals, but people with no special powers whatsoever can't travel through them, otherwise they'll disintegrate. We don't entirely know how it works, either. Anyway, in our dimension, you're all characters in a movie franchise called Return of the Living Dead. The zombies being near immortal powerhouses ended up being the trademark staple that changed the zombie genre. Then the last two came out, and everybody hated them."

"Except for our friend, Kyle Lankford," Frodo announced. "He likes them even though he knows they're not good."

"What were the last two about?" Cody asked.

"You guys," Julie informed them. "The outbreak at Hybra was the fourth one, Necropolis, and the fifth one which just happened last week for you guys, was Rave to the Grave."

Julian and Becky looked at each other quickly. They went wide eyed and pointed at each other with their jaws dropped as they remembered their words on top of that shop in Elswood.

"Literally 96% of the internet hates the last two movies," Rigby admitted. "They thought it was unrealistic that you guys know how to do so much for high schoolers, they especially hated that the zombies were different with no explanation, even though I'm pretty sure they'd hate it even with the explanation, and they think there was a lot of horrible acting, especially from Julian's actor."

"Hey!" Julian exclaimed, suddenly offended. "That was the worst day for me. A lot of my friends died in front of me, my parents were low grade Nemesises, my little brother got eaten, and the girl I liked got shot!"

"And the girl you lost your virginity to turned into a zombie, so you didn't want to kill her," Jenny reminded him, blandly.

"That was in the past," Julian softly assured her.

"Yeah, the zombies in suits were also highly complained," Raleigh admitted. "Plus, people thought it was stupid that you wouldn't shoot her because you lost your virginity to her, even though Kyle thinks it's the funniest thing he's ever heard in a bad horror movie."

"Movie reviews aside," Chuck commented. "Why did you guys decide to gather us together to do your work for you? Couldn't you do it yourselves?"

"Like we said before, revenge is usually the best driver," Julie informed them. "Our guy in charge wanted to help you guys survive, and figured you would be the best options for fighting to reveal the truth in your dimension."

"But you can travel through time," Tom pointed out. "Why didn't you just go back and prevent the Darrow Chemical Company from making the gas in the first place?"

"That didn't really occur to us until after we collected you guys," Raleigh admitted. "And once you make an impression on a specific timeline, you can't change it, otherwise the entire existence of time and space might collapse."

"Okay, that's a pretty good reason to not try to go back after you guys already got us," Lucy admitted, eyes wide for a bit in shock.

"But why did your guy in charge even want to get involved?" Cody asked. "Sure, you guys can travel through dimensions, but why this one specifically?"

The main officials shared embarrassed looks before Rigby decided to take charge.

"He has an obsession with the name Julian," he admitted. "And he wanted a guy named Julian as a diplomat from one of the dimensions we visit."

The survivors of each outbreak shared surprised and confused looks at his words.

"So..." Julian said in confusion. "You guys came to this dimension and saved our lives, brought us together, and fought alongside us against a town full of zombies... all because your boss is obsessed with my name?"

"We've done more for weirder," Carter admitted. "We have a guy, Ven, who flew a dragon across the Manhattan and New Jersey skyline on a dare."

"What'd he win?" Becky asked.

"A box of frozen corn dogs," Frodo answered.

"...You guys are a little weird," Spider finally commented. "And that's coming from a guy named Spider."

"Yeah, we get that a lot," Raleigh admitted. "Now, there's just one more question that needs to be asked."

Everyone got confused expressions on their faces before Raleigh looked at Julian, Cody, and Becky.

"How can you guys do so much!?" he asked.

The trio jumped in surprise at his tone of voice.

"Wh-what?" Cody asked.

"Oh, come on!" Rigby exclaimed. "Cody hacked into your school's system and the Hybra database to change grades and find Zeke in Necropolis. The three of you know how to use motorbikes and can shoot guns professionally with no prior training. Cody and Julian repelled down the side of a giant building even more professionally."

"Let's not forget that Cody managed to turn the T-5 chemical into a drug for his college classmates," Doc Mandel remarked.

"Guess we might as well share," Julian admitted.

"An old stuntman used to live in our town back in middle and high school," Becky started explaining. "Paying 5 bucks a week, he showed us a lot of the coolest stuff he ever did in movies. Repelling down great heights like you saw, motorbike riding, hell, even bungee jumping."

"Plus, he had like, dozens of prop guns he stole from movie sets," Cody added. "He showed us how to shoot."

"He also had a super smart brother," Julian added. "Showed Cody how to use computers professionally and chemistry."

"Probably didn't expect me to use them for the reasons I did," Cody admitted with a slight smile. "'Cause after like, two years of spending so much time doing so much badass stuff, I figured out how to get into the school database, like you said, to change our grades."

"It was then that we decided to lower it down to like, three days a week," Becky admitted. "Didn't stop Cody from hacking into the database, though."

"I once convinced all of Lincoln High to wear cowboy hats to school for a week," Cody proudly announced.

"That was you?" Julian asked in surprise.

A lot of the group laughed at their words.

"Well, I guess we've done enough," Raleigh announced. He looked at his allies. "I almost don't want to go back home."

"What are you talking about?" Aldo asked.

"Like we said," Rigby announced. "We gathered you together to set up your conquest to reveal the truth yourselves. The plan was never to stay forever."

"What?" Becky asked in shock.

"You guys are just gonna leave?" Jenny asked, also in shock.

"Not forever," Carter assured the survivors. "There are a lot of things you guys still don't understand everything about around here."

"Hey, we know how to fight," Jessie exclaimed in offense.

"No, there are a lot of things you guys still don't understand about _here_," Carter informed him. "This place has a lot of nooks and crannies we didn't have time to go through when we first got here. Plus, none of you guys know how to fly the giant ships."

"Oh," Jessie said, anger gone.

"And, we have to keep you guys updated on the progress of the cure for Curt and Julie," Julie announced. "But you gotta know, time works weirdly between dimensions. So, however much time it takes us in our dimension, it'll be a different amount of time here."

"We don't know how it works, either," Frodo admitted.

"Okay, uh..." Burt said with uncertainty. "I guess that means it'll be okay for you guys to slip away."

"Hey, don't worry," Rigby assured them. "We'll be back as soon as you need us. Really, the Skype system on the computer reaches our dimension. It's pretty cool."

"Okay, well, we'll look forward to seeing you guys again soon," Gino informed them.

"Looking forward to it," Raleigh informed them, before walking near a larger space in the room.

Raleigh then held up his hand, and a large, circular green portal appeared in the air. The survivors jumped in surprise as the green portal with dark spots and sparks of electricity flew around the large circle in the air. Frodo, Carter, Julie, and Rigby walked over to join him.

"See you around!" Rigby called out.

"Bye," Julie waved goodbye before turning towards the portal.

The five of them jumped through the portal one at a time, falling farther and farther through the deep, green pathway, yelling out in excitement. After the five of them disappeared through the portal, the large green circle vanished into thin air, leaving the fifteen survivors alone in the room.

"That was awesome," Chuck announced nonchalantly.

People nodded their heads and muttered, "Yep."

"So, what do we do now?" Becky asked.

"I don't know about you guys," Cody informed the people on the couch behind them. "But I'm teaching our friends from the 80's how to play these new modern video games."

He grabbed the TV remote and turned it on before going to hook up the Playstation.

"I'll go make some brownies," Doc Mandel announced. "Anyone wanna help?"

"Sure," John told him.

"I'll help," Becky offered.

The three stood up and started walking to the kitchen.

"Gino, my friend," Aldo announced. "We should go let the bosses know where we are. They will get curious the longer we put it off."

"All right, all right," Gino relented.

"I'll go with," Burt announced. "I wanna see how these new fangled computers work."

The two Russian agents and former store owner got up and walked to the doorway they knew would lead to the computer room, no doubt to send an email to their old boss.

With the Russians and Burt searching for the computer room, Doc Mandel, Becky, and John in the kitchen, and Cody trying to show Spider, Chuck, Casey, Jessie, Tom, and Lucy the wonders of modern gaming, that meant that Julian and Jenny had their first bout of possible alone time together since the outbreak at the Rave. With that in mind, they looked at each other in thought.

"Well, we could take a nice walk outside," Julian suggested. "Get some fresh air."

Jenny nodded at his suggestion.

"Or," she remarked. "Since you've been outside in a veritable hellhole for the last three days, wouldn't you rather just slip off and have some private time in our room?"

"...I like that idea better," Julian admitted.

Jenny helped the still wounded Julian to his feet, and the two of them started making their way past their friends to the hallway leading to their room. None of the fifteen of them knew what the future held for them. Maybe they would succeed at exposing the truth of the gas and avenge their loved ones, or maybe they would die while trying. But as long as they worked together, they knew they could get through this new ordeal in their lives.

And just that thought was enough to keep fighting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided on Michigan. I'll start making the edits later on
> 
> Well, I got this first one out of the way. Go on, bring on the hate, anger, and disdain that I decided to make a story about all of this, and basically immolated the 4th wall with them explaining that they're characters in movies and some stuff I heard from people's reviews about them. I don't care. I did this because I wanted to, and that's enough.
> 
> The next installment will introduce another ally for them in this universe. This ally is also a character from a zombie movie that came out and was hated by pretty much the entire internet. You'll probably guess who it is based off of the AMS hints. And if you can correctly guess, don't worry. It's just one specific character out of that entire movie that I liked more than the others.
> 
> Why, you might ask?
> 
> Well, the same reason I started this series in the first place: I feel like it


End file.
